likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God 3. All those are unregenerate that depend not upon God as their chiefest Benefactor and do not most carefully apply themselves to him as knowing that in his favour is life Psal 30.5 and that his loving kindness is better then life Psal 63.3 and that to his judgement we must finally stand or fall but do ambitiously seek the favour of men and call them their Benefactors Luke 22.25 Matth. 23.9 whatever become of the favour of God He is no child of God that preferreth not the Love of God before the Love of all the world He is no heir of heaven that preferreth not the fruition of God in Heaven before all worldly glory and felicity Col. 4.1 2 3. If ye be risen with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God set your affection on things above not on things on the earth The Love of God is the summ of Holiness the Heart of the new creature the perfecting of it is the perfection and felicity of man 4. They are certainly unregenerate that Believe not the Gospel and take not Christ for their only Saviour and his promises of Grace and Glory as purchased by his Sacrifice and Merits for the Foundation of their hopes on which they resolve to trust their souls for pardon and for peace with God and endless Happiness Acts 4.12 Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved 1 John 5.11 12. This is the record that God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life When our Happiness was in Adams hands he lost it It is now put into safer hands and Jesus Christ the second Adam is become our Treasury He is the Head of the Body from whom each member hath quickning influence Eph. 1.22 The life of Saints is in him as the life of the tree is in the root unseen Col. 4.3 4. Holiness is a Living unto God in Christ Though we are dead with Christ to the Law and to the world and to the flesh we are alive to God So Paul describeth our case in his own Gal. 2.19 20. I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live unto God I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Rom. 6.11 Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is the Vine and we are the branches without him we can do nothing If you abide not in him and his words in you you are cast forth as a branch and withered which men gather and cast into the fire and they are burnt John 15.1 5 6 7. In Baptism you are married unto Christ as to the external solemnization and in spiritual Regeneration your Hearts do inwardly close with him entertain him and resign themselves unto him by Faith and Love and by a resolved Covenant become his own And therefore Baptism and the Lords Supper are called Sacraments because as Souldiers were wont by an Oath and listing their names and other engaging Ceremonies to oblige themselveâ— to their Commanders and their Vow waâ— called A Sacrament so do we engage ouâ— selves to Christ in the holy Vow or Covenanâ— entered in Baptism and renewed in the Lords Supper 5. That person is certainly unregenerate that never was convinced of a Necessity of Sanctification or never perceived an excellency and amiableness in Holiness of heart and life and loved it in others and desired it himself and never gave up himself to the Holy Ghost to be further sanctified in the use of his appointed means desiring to be perfect and willing to press forward towards the mark and to abound in grace Much less is that person renewed by the Holy Ghost that hateth Holiness and had rather be without it and would not walk in the fear and obedience of the Lord. The Spirit of Holiness is that Life by which Christ quickneth all that are his members He is no member of Christ that is without it Rom. 8.9 According to his Mercy he saveth us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 6. That person is unregenerate that is under the Dominion of his fleshly desires and mindeth the things of the flesh above the things of the Spirit and hath not mortified it so far as not to live according to it A carnal mind and a carnal life are opposite to Holiness as Sickness is tâ— Health and Darkness unto Light Rom. 8.1 to 14. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if by the spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness revellings and such like of which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God But the fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Galat. 5.18 to 25. 7. Lastly that person is certainly unregenerate that so far valueth and loveth this world or any of the carnal accommodations therein as practically to prefer them before the Love of God and the Hopes of Everlasting Glory seeking it first with highest estimation and holding it fastest so as that he will rather venture his soul upon the threatned wrath of God then his body upon the wrath of man and will be religious no further then may consist with his prosperity or safety in the world and hath something that he cannot part with for Christ and heaven because it is dearer to him then they Let this man go never so far in Religion as long
call your selves far worse fools then â—hem then let me be stigmatized with the most contumelious brand of folly It is not then your want of Natural faculties and parts that makes you mute in the matters of God and your salvation when men of meaner naturals then you do speak of those things with the greatest freedom and delight And sure it is not for want of an ingeâ—nous education As you would take it ill to be thought below them in natural endowments so much more in those acquisitions and furniture of the mind which comes by breeding and due culture of your Naturals You would disdain in these to be compared with many poor rusticks and mechanicks that are almost as fluent in speaking of the great things of immortality as you are in talking of your transient occurrences your sublunary felicities and the provisions of your Appetites and your Skins What then can be the cause of this dumb disease but that you are unacquainted with your selves and as you have not a New-birth and a Divine Nature and the Spirit of Christ to be either the spring and principle or the Matter of your discourse so you have not the due knowledge of your sin and misery which should teach you the language of serious Penitents before you have the language of justified Believers If you say again It is because we have not been used to this kind of speech I answer And whence is it that you have not been used to it If you had know the Greatness and Goodness of the Lord as sensibly as they would not you have used to Pray to him and speak of him as well as they If you had known and considered your sin and wants and miseries or dangers as well as they would you not have been used to beg mercy pardon and relief and to complain of your distress as much as they If you did as highly value the matters of Eternal consequence as they do and laid them to heart as seriously as they would not your minds and hearts have appeared in your speeches and made you use your selves to prayer and holy conference as well as others If you say that many have that within them which they are not able to express or which they think not meet to open unto other I answer 1. As to Ability its true of those that have the Impediments of some Natural disability or excessive bashfulness Melancholy or the like disease and of those that are so lately converted that they have not had time to learne and use themselves to a holy language But what 's this to them that are of as good naturall parts and free elocution as other men and suppose themselves to have bin true Christians long 2. And as to the point of Prudence which is pleaded for this silence it is so much against Nature and so much against the word of God that there is no roome at all for this pretence unless it be for inferiors or such as want an opportunity to speak to their superiours or to strangers or unless it be only for some particular omissions when the thing would be unseasonable Nature hath made the tongue the index of the mind especially to express the matters of most urgency and concernment Do you keep silent ordinarily the matters which you highliest esteem which you oftenest think of which you take your life and happiness to consist in and which you are deeplyest affected with and prefere before all other matters of the world What a shamefull pretence is it for those that are dumb to Prayer and holy conference for want of any due sense of their condition or Love to God which should open their lips to take on them it is for want of tongues or because their Prudence directeth them to silence When they hold not their tongues about those matters which they must confess are ten thousand fold less regardable they can discourss unwearyedly about their wealth their sport their friend their honour because they Love them And if a man should here tell them that the Heart is not to be opened or exercised by the tongue they would thinke he knew not the naturall use of Heart or Tongue And yet while they pretend to love God above all they have neither skill nor will to make expression of it you strike them dumb when you turne the streame of conference that way and you may almost as well bid them speak in a strange language as Pray to God from the sense of their necessities and yet they say their Hearts are good Let the word of God be judge whether a Holy experienced Heart should hide itself and not appeare in Prayer and holy conference by the tongue 1 Thess 5.17 Pray continually Luk. 18.1 Christ spake a parable to this end that men ought allwayes to pray and not waxe faint Phil. 4.6 Be carefull for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God And How they must Pray you may gather from 2 Chron. 6.29 In case of dearth Pestilence blasting mildew locusts caterpilers enemies sicknesses or sores Then what prayer or supplication soever shall be made of any man or of all the people when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief and shall spread forth his hands in this house then heare thou from Heaven c. I am not speaking of the Prescribed Prayers of the Church nor denying the lawfullness of such in private But if you have no words but what you say by rote and pray not from the knowledge of your own particular sore and griefe it is because you are too much unacquainted with yourselves and strangers to those Hearts where the greatest of your sores and griefes are lodged And whether Good Hearts should be opened in holy Conference as well as Prayer you may easily determine from the command of God 1 Pet. 4.10.11 As every man hath received the gift so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God Eph 4.29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers Heb. 3.13 exhort one another daily while it is called To day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfullnes of sin Psal 37.30 31. The mouth of the Righteous speaketh wisdome and his tongue talketh of judgment The Law of his God is in his heart c Psal 71.8 Let my mouth be filled with thy Praise and with thy honour all the day Pro. 10.11 The mouth of a Righteous man is a Well of life 21. The lips of the Righteous feed many And Christ himself decideth it expresly Math. 12.34.35 Out of the abundance of the Heart the mouth speaketh A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things For a man that hath no
odious and dangerous as the corruption of your souls and that which displeaseth the most Holy God 2. You see an excellency in Holiness of Heart and Life as the Image of God the rectitude of man and that which fits him for eternal blessedness and maketh him amiable in the eyes of God 3. You unfeignedly desire to be rid of your sin how dear soever it hath been to you and to be perfectly sanctifyed by the Holy Spirit by his degrees in the use of the means which he hath appointed and you consent that the Holy Ghost as your sanctifier do purifie you and kindle the Love of God in you and bring it to perfection 4. In Baptism you profess to renounce the world the flesh and the Devil that is as they stand for your Hearts against the Will and Love of God and against the Happiness of the unseen world and against your Faith in Christ your Saviour and against the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost If therefore you are sincere in this part of your Covenant you do upon deliberation perceive all the pleasures profits and honours of this world to be so vain and worthless that you are Habitually resolved to prefer the Love and favour of God and your salvation before them and to be Ruled by Jesus Christ and his Spirit and word rather then by the desires of the flesh or the worlds allurements or the will of man or the suggestions of the devil and to forsake all rather then forsake the Father the Saviour the Sanctifier to whom you are devoted and the everlasting life which upon his promise you have taken for your Hope and Portion This is the sense of Baptism and all this in profession being Essential to your Baptism must be Essential to your Christianity Your Parents Profession of it was necessary to your infant title to the outward priviledges of the Church Your own personal profession is necessary to your continuance of those priviledges and your visible Christianity and communion with the adult And the Truth of what you profess is necessary to your reall Christianity before God and to your title to salvation And this is it that is to be now enquired after You cannot hope to be admitted into Heaven upon lower terms then the sincerity of that profession with entereth you into the Church While we tell you of no higher matters necessary to your salvation then the sincerity of that which is necessary to Baptism and Christianity I hope you will not say we deal too strictly with you Enquire now by a diligent tryal of your hearts whether you truly consent to all these articles of your Baptismal Vow or Covenant If you do you are Regenerate by the Spirit If you do not you have but the Sacrament of Regeneration which aggravateth your guilt as a violated profession and Covenant must needs do And I do not think that any man worthy to be discoursed with will have the face to tell you that any man at the use of Reason is by his Baptism or any thing else in a state of Justification and Salvation whose heart doth not sincerely consent to the Covenant of Baptism and whose Life expresseth not that consent Hence therefore you may perceive that it is a thing unquestionable that all these persons are yet unregenerate and in the bond of their iniquity 1. All those that have not unfeignedly devoted themselves to God as being not their own but his His by the title of Creation Psal 100.3 Know ye that the Lord he is God it is he that hath made us and not we our selves we are his people and the sheep of his pasture And His by the title of Redemption for we are bought with a price 1 Cor. 7.23 And he that unfeignedly taketh God for his Owner and Absolute Lord will heartily give up himself unto him as Paul saith of the Corinthians 2 Cor. 8.5 They first gave up their own selves to the Lord and to us by the will of God And he that entirely giveth up himself to God doth with himself surrender all that he hath in desire and resolution As Christ with himself doth give us all things Rom. 8.32 and addeth other things to them that seek first his Kingdom and its Righteousness Matth. 6.33 so Christians with themselves do give up all they have to Christ And he that giveth up himself to God will live to God And he that taketh not himself to be his Own will take nothing for his Own but will study the interest of his Lord and think he is best disposed of when he honoureth him most and serveth him best 1 Cor. 6.19.20 Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods If any of you devote not your selves unfeignedly to God and make it not your first enquiry what God would have you be and do but live to your selves and yet think your selves in a state of Life you are mistaken and do not know your selves What abundance might easily see their miserable condition in this discovery Who say in effect our lips are our own Who is Lord over us Psal 12.4 and rather hate and oppose the interest of God and Holiness in the world then devote themselves to the promoting of it Deut. 32.6 Do ye thus requite the Lord ye foolish people and unwise Is not he thy father that hath bought thee Hath he not made thee and established thee 2. All those are unregenerate and in a state of death that are not sincerely subjected to the Governing will of God but are Ruled by their carnal Interest and desires and the word of a man that can gratifie or hurt them can do more with them then the word of God To shew them the command of a man that they think can undo them if they disobey doth more prevail with them then to shew them the command of God that can condemn them unto endless misery They more fear men that can kill the body then God that can destroy both soul and body in Hell fire When the lust of the flesh and the will of man do bear more sway then the will of God its certain that such a soul is unregenerate Rom. 6.3 4 6. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin v. 16. Know ye not that to whom you yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness 1 Pet. 4.4.1 2. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves
as he goeth further for the world and setteth it nearest to his heart and holds it fastest and will do most for it and consequently loveth it better then Christ he is no true Christian nor in a state of grace The Scriptures put this also out of doubt as you may see Mat. 10.37 38. Luke â—4 26 27 33. He that loveth Father or Mother more then me is not worthy of me c. Whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple Whoâ—ver he be of you that forsaketh not all that â—e hath he cannot be my Disciple Know â—e not that the friendship of the world is â—nmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God â—am 4.4 No wonder then if the world must be renounced in our Baptism Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 You see by this time what it is to be Regenerate and to be a Christian indeed by what is contained even in our Baptism and consequently how you may Know your selves whether you are sanctified and the heirs of heaven or not Again therefore I summon you to appear before your consciences and if indeed these Evidences of regeneration are not in you stop not the sentence but confess your sinfull miserable state and condemn your selves and say no longer I hope yet that my present condition may serve turn and that God will forgive me though I should die without any further change Thosâ— Hopes that you may be saved without reâ—generation or that you are regenerate wheâ— you are not are the pillars of Satans forâ—tress in your hearts and keep you froâ— the saving Hopes of the Regenerate thaâ— that will never make you ashamed Upâ—hold not that which Christ is engageâ— against Down it must either by Graâ—â— or Judgement and therefore abuse noâ— your souls by underpropping such an ill-grounded false deceitfull hope You have now time to take it down so orderly and safely as that it fall not on your heads and overwhelm you not for ever But if you stay till death shall undermine it the falâ— will be great and your ruine irreparable If you are wise therefore Know your selves in time II. I have done with that part of my special Exhortation which concerned the unregenerate I am next to speak to those of you that by Grace are brought into a better state and to tell you that it very much concerneth you also even the best of you to labour to be well acquainted with your selves and that both in respect of 1. Your sins and wants and 2. Your Graces and your duties I. Be acquainted with the root and remnant of your sins with your particular inclinations and corrupt affections with their quality their degree and strength with the weaknesses of every grace with your disability to duty and with the omissions or sinfull practises of your lives Search diligently and deeply frequently and accurately peruse your hearts and wayes till you certainly and throughly know your selves And I beseech you let it not suffice you that you know your states and have found your selves in the Love of God in the faith of Christ and possessed by his Spirit Though this be a mercy worth many worlds yet this is not all concerning your selves that you have to know If yet you say that you have no sin you deceive your selves If yet you think you are past all danger your danger is the greater for this mistake As much as you have been humbled for sin as much as you have loathed it and your selves for it as oft as you have confessed it lamented it and complained and prayed against it yet it is alive Though it be mortified it is alive It is said to be mortified as to the prevalency and reign but the relicts of it yet survive were it perfectly dead you were perfectly delivered from it and might say you have no sin but it is not yet so happy with you It will find work for the blood and spirit of Christ and for your selves as long as you are in the flesh And alas too many that know themselves to be upright in the main are yet so much unacquainted with their hearts and lives as to the degrees of grace and sin as that it much disadvantageth them in their Christian progress Go along with me in the carefull observation of these following Evils that may befall even the regenerate by the remnants of self-ignorance 1. The work of Mortification is very much hindered because you know your selves no better as may appear in all these following discoveries 1. You confess not sin to God or man so penitently and sensibly as you ought because you know your selves no better Did you see your inside with a fuller view how deeply would you aggravate your sin How heavily would you charge your selves Repentance would be more intense and more effectual and when you were more contrite you would be more meet for the sense of pardon and for Gods delight Isa 51.15 66.2 It would fill you more with godly shame and self-abhorrence if you better knew your selves It would make you more sensibly say with Paul Rom. 7.23 24. I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death And with David Psal 38.18 I will declare my iniquity I will be sorry for my sin 40.12 They are more then the hairs of my head 32.5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Repentance is the Death of sin and the knowledge of our selves and the sight of our sins is the life of Repentance 2. You pray not against sin for grace and pardon so earnestly as you should because you know your selves no better O that God would but open these too-close hearts unto us and anatomize the relicts of the old man and shew us all the recesses of our self-deceit and the filth of worldliness and carnal inclinations that lurk within us and read us a Lecture upon every part what prayers would it teach us to indite That you be not proud of your holiness let me tell you Christians that a full display of the corruptions that the best of you carry about you would not only take down self-exalting thoughts that you be not lift up above measure but would teach you to pray with fervour and importunity and waken you out of your sleepy indifferency and make you cry O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me If the sight of a Lazar or cripple or naked person move you to compassion though they use no words if the sight
Humiliation Do theâ— think in their dejections that it is in theâ— hearts so much to exalt themselves I coâ—â—fess many of them are sensible of the Pride even to the increase of their humiliâ—ty and as it is said of Hezekiah do humbâ—â— themselves for the pride of their hearts 〈◊〉 that Gods wrath doth not come upon them 2 Chr. 32.26 But yet too few are so weâ— acquainted with the power and rootedness oâ— this sin at the heart and the workings oâ— it in the hour of temptation as they should be Observe it but at such timeâ— as these and you will see that break forth that before appeared not 1. When 〈◊〉 are undervalued and slighted and meaneâ— persons preferred before us and when our words and judgements are made light of and our parts thought to be poor and low when any blot of dishonour is cast upoâ— us deserved or undeserved when we are slandered or reproached and used with despight what a matter do we make of it and how much then doth our Pride appear in our distaste and offence and impatience so that the same person that can â—our out words of blame and shame against himself cannot bear half as much from â—thers without displeasure and disquietness of mind It would help us much to know â—his by our selves in the time of our humility that we may be engaged to more watchfuless and resistance of our pride 2. When we are reproved of any disgracefull sin how hardly goes it down and how many excuses have we how seldom are we brought to downright penitent confessions What secret distaste is apt to be rising in our hearts against the reprover And how seldom hath he that hearty thanks which so great a benefit deserves And would any think in our humilations and large confessions unto God that we were so proud To know this by our selves would make us more suspicious and ashamed to be guilty of it 3. When any preferment or honour is to be given or any work to be done that is a mark of dignity how apt are we to think our selves as fit for it as any and to be displeased if the honour or employment do pass by us 4. When we are admired appladed or excessively esteemed and loved how apt are we to be too much pleased with it which sheweth a proud desire to be some body in the world and that there is much of this venom at the bottom in our hearts even when we lay our selves in the dust and walk in sackcloth and pass the heaviâ—est judgement on our selves 7. Another instance of our unacquaintedness with our hearts and the latent undiscerned corruption of them is our littlâ— discerning or bewailing those secret master sins which lie at the root of all the rest and are the life of the old man and the cause of all the miscarriages of our lives As 1. Vnbelief of the truth of the holy Scriptures of the immortality of the soul and the life of joy or misery hereafter and the other Articles of the Christian faith What abundance of Christians are sensible of their unbelief as to the applying acts of faith that tend to their assurance of their own salvation that are little sensible of any defect in the Assenting act or of any secret root of unbelief about the truth of the Gospel revelations And yet alas it is this that weakeneth all our graces It is this that feedeth all our wo O happy men were we free from this What prayers should we put up What lives should we lead how â—atchfully should we walk with what â—â—ntempt should we look on the allureâ—ents of the world with what disâ—â—in should we think on fleshly lusts â—â—th what indignation should we meet the â—â—mpter and scorn his base unreasonable â—otions if we did but perfectly believe the â—â—ry truth of the Gospel and world to come â—ow carefull and earnest should we be to â—ake our calling and election sure How â—reat a matter should we make of sin and â—f helps and hinderances in the way to â—eaven How much should we prefer that â—â—ate of life that furthereth our salvation â—efore that which strengtheneth our snares â—y furthering our prosperity and pleaâ—ure in the world if we were not weak or â—â—anting in our belief of the the certain â—erity of these things Did we better know â—he badness of our hearts herein it would engage us more in fortifying the vitals and â—ooking better to our foundation and windâ—ng up this spring of faith which must give life to all right motions of the soul 2. How insensible are too many of the great imperfection of their love to God! What passionate complaints have we of their want of sorrow for their sin and want of memory and of ability to pray c. when their complaints for want of Love to God and more affecting knowledge of him are so colâ— and customary as shews us they little observe the greatness of this sinfull want This is the very heart and summ and poyâ—son of all the sins of our soul and life Sâ— much as a man Loves God so much he iâ— Holy and so much he hath of the spiriâ— and image of Jesus Christ and so much he hath of all saving graces and so much he will abhor iniquity and so much he wilâ— love the commands of God As Love is the summ of the Law and Prophets so should it be the summ of our care and study through all our lives to excercise and strengthen it 3. How little are most Christians troubled for want of Love to men to Brethren neighbours and enemies how cold are their complaints for their defects in this in comparison of other of their complaints But is there not cause of as deep humiliation for this sin as almost any other It seems to me that want of Love is one of the most prevalent diseases among us when I hear it so little seriously lamented I oft hear people say O that we could hear more attentively and affectionately and pray more fervently and weep for sin more plenteously But how seldom do I hear them say O that we did love our Brethren more ardently and our Neighbours and Enemies more heartily then we do and set our selves to do them good There is so little pains taken to bring the heart to the Love of others and so few and cold requests put up for it when yet the heart is backward to it that makes me conclude that Charity is weaker in most of us then we observe And indeed it appeareth so when it comes to tryal to that tryal which Christ will judge it by at last Mat. 25. When Love must be shewed by any self-denyal or costly demonstration by parting with our food and rayment to supply the wants of others and by hazarding our selves for them in their distress then see how much we Love indeed Good words cost little so cheap an exercise of charity as is mentioned Jam. 2.15 16. Depart in peace be warmed and
〈◊〉 with the heart and whether you have â—â—y special interest in him O what a damp 〈◊〉 casteth on the soul how it stifleth its â—â—pes and joys and turneth the Sacrament â—hich is appointed for their comfort into â—â—eir greater trouble It hath many a time â—â—ieved me to observe that no ordinance â—â—th cast many upright souls into greater â—erplexities and discouragements and â—â—stresses then the Lords Supper because â—â—ey come to it with double reverence and 〈◊〉 the doubtings of their title and questiâ—ning their preparedness and by their fears of eating and drinking unworthily their â—â—uls are utterly discomposed with perplexâ—â—g passions and turned from the pleasant â—â—â—rcise of faith and the delighful enterâ—ourse that they should have with God and â—â—ey are distempered and put out of relish 〈◊〉 all the sweetness of the Gospel And 〈◊〉 they are frightened from the Sacrament by such sad experiences and dare 〈◊〉 thither no more for fear of eating â—udgement to themselves And should â—oâ— Christians labour to remove the cause of such miserable distracting fears that so much wrong both Christ and them and 〈◊〉 recover their well-grounded peace and comfort 11. Your Love to God which is 〈◊〉 Heart and Life of the new creature 〈◊〉 so much depend upon your knowledge of 〈◊〉 love to you as should make you much 〈◊〉 desirous of such a knowledge Love is 〈◊〉 end of faith and faith the way to 〈◊〉 So much of Love as is in every duty 〈◊〉 much holiness is in it and no more Iâ— is the sum of the commandments 〈◊〉 the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13 â— Mat. 22.37 Mark 12.33 Though God 〈◊〉 us first as purposing our good 〈◊〉 we loved him 1 Joh. 4.9.10 And 〈◊〉 therefore Love him because he first 〈◊〉 us v. 19. Yet doth he Love us by compâ—â—â—cency and acceptance because we love 〈◊〉 Father and the son Joh. 16.27 〈◊〉 the Father himself loveth you because 〈…〉 loved me and have believed that I came 〈◊〉 from God And what will more effectâ—â—â— kindle in you the fervent Love of Chrâ—â—â— then to know that he loveth you and 〈◊〉 in you All this is exprest by 〈◊〉 himself in Joh 14.20.21 22 23. At 〈◊〉 day ye shall know that I am in my Faith and you in me and I in you He that 〈◊〉 my commandments and keepeth them he 〈◊〉 that loveth me and he that loveth me 〈◊〉 be loved of my Father and I will love 〈◊〉 and will manifest my self unto him If a man love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 1 Cor. 8.3 If any man love God the same is known of him with a knowledge of special Love and approbation This is no disparagement to faith whose nature and use is to work by Love Gal. 5.6 What a man Loveth such he is The Love is the man Our Love is judged by our Life as the cause by the effect but the Life is judged by the Love as the fruits by the tree the effects by the cause Mores auâ—em nostri non ex eo quod quisque novit sed ex eo quod diligit dijudicari solentinâ—â— faciâ—â—t bonos vel malos mores nisi boni vel mali amores saith Augustine that is Our manners are not used to be judged of according to that which every man knoweth but according to that which he loveth It is only good or evil love that maketh good or evil manners If Plato could say as Augustine citeth him lib. 8. de Civit. Dei Hoc est Philosophari scilicet Deum amare To be a Philosopher is to Love God Much more should we say Hoc est Christianum agere this is the doctrine and the work of a Christian even the Love of God Indeed it is the work of the Redeemer to recover the heart of man to God and to bring us to Love him by representing him to us as the most amiable suitable object of our Love And the perfection of Love is Heaven it self O jugum sancti amoris inq Bernard quam dulciter capis gloriose laqueas suaviter premis delectanter oneras fortiter stringis prudenter erudis that is The yoak of holy Love O how sweetly dost thou surprize how gloriously dost thou inthrall how plesantly dost thou press how delightfully dost thou load how strongly dost thou bind how prudently dost thou instruct O faelix amor ex quo oritur strenuitas morum puritas affectionum subtilitas intellectuum desideriorum sanctitas operum claritas virtutum faecunditas meritorum dignitas praemiorum sublimitas O happy Love from which ariseth the strength of manners the purity of affections the subtilty of intellects the sanctity of desires the excellency of works the fruitfulness of vertues the dignity of deserts the sublimity of the reward I appeal to your own consciences Christians would you not think it a foretaste of Heaven upon earth if you could but Love God as much as you desire would any kind of life that you can imagine be so desirable and delightful to you Would any thing be more acceptable unto God! And on the contrary a soul without the Love of God is worse then a Corpse without a soul If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathama maranatha 1 Cor. 16.22 And do I need to tell you what a powerful incentive it is to Love to know that you are beloved It will make Christ much more dear to you to know how dear you are to him What is said of affective Love in us may partly be said of attractive Love in Christ Eccles 8.7 Many waters cannot quench Love neither can the floods drown it no riches can purchase what it can attract when you find that he hath you as a seal upon his arm and heart v. 6. and that you are dear to him as the apple of his eye what holy flames will this kindle in your breast If it be almost impossible with your equals upon earth not to Love them that Love you which Christ telleth you that even Publicans will do Matth. 5.46 how much more should the Love of Christ constrain us abundantly to Love him when being infinitely above us his Love descendeth that ours may ascend His Love puts forth the hand from heaven to fetch us up O Christians you little know how Satan wrongeth you by drawing you to deny or doubt of the special Love of God How can you Love him that you apprehend to be your enemie and to intend your ruine Doubtless not so easily as if you know him to be your friend In reason is there any likelier way to draw you to hate God then to draw you to believe that he hateth you Can your thoughts be pleasant of him or your speeches of him sweet or can you attend him or draw near him with delight while you think he hateth you and hath decreed your damnation you may fear him as he is a
terrible avenger and you may confess his judgements to be just but can you amicably embrace the consuming fire and love to dwell with the everlasting burnings O therefore as ever you would have the Love of God to animate and sanctifie and delight your souls study the greatness of his Love to you and labour with all possible speed and diligence to find that Christ by his spirit is within you It is the whole work of sanctification that Satan would destroy or weaken by your doubts And it is the whole work of sanctification that by Love would be promoted if you knew your interest in the Love of Christ 12. It is the knowledge of Christ dwelling in you and so of the special Love of God that must acquaint you with a life of holy Thankfulness and prase These highest and most acceptable duties will be out of your reach if Satan can hide from you that mercy which must be the chiefest matter of your Thanksgiving Will that soul be in tune for the high Praises of the Lord that thinks he meaneth to use him as an enemy Can you look for any cheerful thanksgiving from him that looks to lie in hell will he not rather cry with David Psal 6.5 In death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal 30.9 What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit shall the dust praise thee shall it declare thy truth shall the damned praise thee or shall they give thee thanks that must be scorched with the flames of thine indignation Can you expect that Joy should be in their hearts or cheerfulness in their countenances or praises in their mouths that think they are Reprobated to the fire of Hell Undoubtedly Satan is not ignorant that this is the way to deprive God of the Service which is most acceptable to him and you of the pleasures of so sweet a life And therefore he that envyeth both will do his worst to damp your spirits and breed uncomfortable doubts and fears and wrongful suspitions in your minds Whereas the Knowledge of your interest in Christ would be a continual storehouse of thanksgiving and praise and teach your hearts as well as your tongues to say with David Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye Righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart Psal 32.1 2 11. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine iniquities Who healeth all thy diseases Who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies Psal 103.1 2 3 4. O Lord my God I cried unto thee and thou hast healed me O Lord thou hast brought up my soul from the grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit sing unto the Lord O ye saints of his and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness for his anger endureth but for a moment in his favour is life Psal 30.2 3 4 5. Thanksgiving would be the very pulse and breath of your assurance of Christ dwelling in you You would say with Paul Eph. 1.3 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in celestials in Christ According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in Love having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved In whom we have redemption through his blood the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded toward us c. Thus faith and assurance as they have an unspeakable store to work upon so it is natural to them to expatiate in the praise of our Redeemer and to delight in amplifications and commemorations of the ways of grace Just so doth Peter begin his first Epistle Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you who are kept by the power of Goâ— through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time wherein ye greatly rejoyce c. No wonder if the Heirs of Heaven be inclined to the language and the work of Heaven I think there are few of you that would not rejoice and by your speech and countenance express your joy if you had assurance but of the dignities and dominions of this world And can he choose but express his Joy and Thankfulness that hath assurance of the crown of life What fragrant thoughts should possess that mind that knoweth it self to be possessed by the Spirit of the living God! How thankfull will he be that knows he hath Christ and Heaven to be thankfull for What sweet delights should fill up the hours of that mans life that knows the son of God liveth in him and that he shall live in Joy with Christ for ever How gladly will he be exercised in the praises of his Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier that knows it must be his work for ever No wonder if this Joy be a stranger to their hearts that are strangers to Christ or strangers to their interest in his love No wonder if they have no hearts for these celestial works that have no part in the celestial inheritance or that know not that they have any part therein How can they joyfully give thanks for that which they know not that they have or ever shall have or have any probability to attain But to that man that is assured of Christ within him Heaven and Earth and all their store do offer themselves as the matter of his Thanks and do furnish him with provisions to feed his Praises What a shame is it that an assured heir of Heaven should be scant and barren in comfort to himself or in Thanks and Praise to Jesus Christ when he hath so full a heap of Love and mercy to fetch his motives from and hath two worlds to furnish him with the preciousest materials and hath no less then Infinite goodness even God himself to be the subject of his Praise O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good because his mercy endureth for ever what ever others do Let Israel say let the house of Aaron say let them that fear the Lord say that his mercy endureth for ever Psal 118.1 2 3 4. The
charge them and intreat them as they love your souls and as they will answer it before God that they suffer you not to sin for fear of displeasing you by plain reproofs and resolve to submit and take it well A stander by hath the great advantage of impartiality and therefore may see that in you which you observe not in your selves an object too neer the eye or too far off is not well discerned self-love doth not hinder us so much in judging of other mens cases as our own Friendly and faithful dealing in the matters of eternal consequence is the principal use and benefit of friend-ship This differenceth the communion of Saints from Beelzebubs swarme of flies and caterpillars Thus two are better then one For if they fall theâ— one will lift up his fellow But woe to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help him up Eccles 4.9 10. Much more woe to him that hath a multitude to cast him and to keep him down Hind 3. THE third extrinsecal Impediment to self-knowledge is Conversing only with such as are as bad as our selves and not with such whose lives display the spiritual endowment and excellencies which we want Among the Ethiopians it seemeth no deformity to be Black Seneca saith that no man is to be upbraided with that which is vitium humani generis the common fault of all the world or of the country where he lives for this were but to upbraid him that he is a man or that he was born in such a time or place Though Christians that know better the common disease do know that there must be common humiliation and remedie yet these indeed are the thoughts of most They know not that it is a matter of dishonour and lamentation to be no better then the most and to lie in the common corruptions of the world and to have no better hearts then they had by Nature To hear preachers talk of Holiness and a Divine Nature and a new birth and of being made new Creatures and of living in the Love of God and in the joyful Hopes of endless Glory doth seem to them but as the talk of a world in the sun or the description of an Angel which humbleth not them at all for not being such nor exciteth in them any great desires to be such As long as they see not the persons that are such they think these are but devout imaginations or the pious dreams of melancholy men and that indeed there are no such persons in the world or if there be that they are but as the Papists Saints here and there one to be admired and canonized and not upon pain of damnation to be imitated They judge of all the world or almost all by those about them And they think that God should be unmerciful if he should condemn so great a number as they see are like themselves and should save none but those few transcendent souls that they are described but hear unacquainted with It sometimes melteth my heart in pitty of many Great ones of the world to think how hard a mater it is for them to know indeed what Holiness is when they seldome hear so much as one Heavenly prayer or Discourse or any serious talke of the matters of Sanctification and communion with Christ When prophaness and inhumane wickedness dwell about them and make such as are but civil and temperate and good-natur'd persons to seem Saints When they see but few that fear the Lord and Love him unfeignedly and live by faith and those few are perhaps of the more cold and timerous and temporizing Strain that shew forth but little of the Heavenly nature and the vertues of their holy faith that dare scarce open their mouths to speak against the wickedness which they see or hear that dare not discourse like the Saints of the most High and the heirs of Heaven for fear of being made the scorn and by-word of the rest or of falling under the frowns and dislike of their superiors so that they live among others almost like common men save only that they run not with them to their excess of ryot and think it enough that by such forbearance of gross sin they are in some measure evil spoken of When they that should let their light so shine before men that they might see their good works and glorifie their heavenly Father Matth. 5.15.16 do hide their Religion and put their Light as under a bushel and not in a Candlestick that it might give light to all that are in the house and so when Religion never appeareth in its proper splendor and power and heavenly tendencie to those Great ones that have no better company what wonder if they never know themselves nor truly understand the nature necessity or excellency of Religion When they know it for the most part but by heresay yea and when they hear it more reproached then applauded it must be a miracle of mercy that must make such men to be sincerely and heartily Religious When they see so many about them worse then themselves and so sew better and those few that are better do hide it and live almost as if they were no better and when the godly whom they see not are described to them by the Serpents seed as if they were but a company of whining melancholy brainsick hypocrites who can expect that ever such men should savingly know themselves or Christ unless a wonder of mercy rescue them and bring them from this darkness and delusion into the light O how oft have I wished in compassion to many of the Great ones of the world that they had but the company which we that are their inferiors have that they did but hear the humble holy heavenly language that we have heard and hear the faithful fervent prayers that many poor Christians pour out before the Lord and saw but the humble harmless exemplary and heavenly lives of many poor Christians that are represented to them as the filth and the off-scouring of the world and perhaps no more regarded then Lazarus was at the Rich mans gate Luk. 16. Did they but see and hear and know such holy and heavenly Believers and were as well acquainted with them as we are how many of them would better know themselves and see what they want and what they must be and better discern between the righteous and the wicked between those that fear God and that fear him not Mal. 3.18 Dir. 3. IT will therefore be a great help to the Knowledge of your selves if you will converse with those that bear the Holy Image of their Creator Col. 3.10 and whose lives will tell you what it is to live by faith and what it is to walke in the spirit to mortifie the flesh and to live above all the alluring vanities of the world We can more sensibly perceive the nature of holiness when we see it in action before our eyes than when
excellency on the skie The Eternal God hath been your refuge and underneath are the everlasting armâ— Deut. 34.26 27. You may remembeâ— the mercies of your younger years of youâ— maried state and of your widdow-hood your comforts in your truly Noble Lord though troubled and interrupted by his death yet increased by the consideration of his feâ—licity with Christ your comfort in youâ— hopeful issue though abated by the injurâ— of Romish theft which stole one of the Roseâ— of your Garden that they might boast of thâ— sweetness when they called it their own 〈◊〉 may well say stole it when all the cheaâ— was performed by unknown persons in thâ— dark and no importunity by you or 〈◊〉 could procure me one dispute or conference iâ— her hearing with any of the seducers beâ—fore her person was stoln away Though comforts conveyed by creatures must havâ— their pricks yet your experience hath partly taught you and more will do that by all thâ— mixtures of sower and bitter ingredients your Father doth temper you the most wholeâ—some composition He chasteneth you foâ— your profit that you may be partaker oâ— his Holiness Heb. 12.10 and the leasâ— degree of Holiness cannot be purchased at too dear a rate His rod and staffe have comforted you and whatever are the beginnings the End will be the quiet fruit of Righteousness when you have been exercised therein And though man be mutable and friends and flesh and heart have failed you yet God is still the strength of â—our heart and your portion for ever Psal â—3 26 O the variety of learning that is â—ontained in the secret writings of a sanctified heart The variety of subjects for the most â—ruitful and delightful thoughts which you â—ay find recorded in the inwards of your â—oul How pleasant is it there to find the â—haracters of the special Love of God the â—â—eaments of his Image the transcript of 〈◊〉 Law the harmony of his gifts and graces â—â—e witness the seal and the earnest of his â—pirit and the foretasts and beginnings of â—ternal Life As Thankfulness abhors â—â—livion and is a Recording grace and keepâ—â—h Histories and Catalogues of Mercies so 〈◊〉 it a Reward unto it self and by these Reâ—â—rds it furnisheth the soul with matter for â—he sweetest employments and delights Is it 〈◊〉 pleasant to you there to Read how God â—â—th confuted the objections of distrust how 〈◊〉 he hath condescended to your weakness and pardoned you when you could not easily forgive your self how oft he hath entertained you in secret with his Love and visited you with his consolations How neer him sometimes you have got in fervent prayer and serious meditation And when for a season he hath hid his face how soon and seasonably he returned How oft he hath found you weeping and hath wiped away your tears and calmed and quieted your troubled soul How he hath resolved your doubts and expelled your fears and heard your prayers How comfortably he hath called you His Child and given you leave and commanded you to call him Father when Christ hath brought you with boldness into his presence How sweet should it be to your remembrance to think how the Love of Christ hath sometime exalted you above these sublunary things How the Spirit hath taken you up to Heaven and shewed to your faith the Glory of the New Hierusalem the blessed company of those Holy spirits that attend the Throne of the Majesty of God and the shining face of your glorified Head By what seasonable and happy Messengers he hath sent you the Cluster of Grapes as the first fruits of the land of promise and commanded you oft to Take and Eate the Bread of Life How oft he hath reached to your thirsty soul the fruit of the Vine and turned it sacramentally into his blood and bid you drink it in remembrance of him till he come and feast you with his fullest Love and satisfie you with the pleasure and presence of his Glory But the volumes of mercy written in your heart are too great to be by me transcribed I can easily appeal to you that are acquainted with it whether such Heart-employment be not more pleasant and more profitable than any of the entertainments that flashy wit or gaudy gallantry or merriments luxurit or preferments can afford Is it not better converse with Christ at home than with such as are described Psa 12. abroad To dwell with all that blessed retinue Gal. 5.22 23. than with Pride Vainglory Envy Dissimulation Hypocrisie Falshood time-wasting soul-destroying pleasures to say nothing of the filthiness which Christian years abhor the mention of and which God himself in time will judge Eph. 5.3 4 5 6. Heb. 13.4 and the rest recited Gal. 5.19 20 21. If ungodly persons do find it more unpleasant to converse at home no wonder when there is nothing but darkness and defilement and when they have put God from them and entertained Satan so that their hearts are like to haunted houses where terrible cries and apparitions do make it a place of fear to the inhabitants But if their souls had such blessed inhabitants as yours could they meet there with a reconciled God a Father a Saviour and a sanctifier had they souls that kept a correspondency with Heaven it would not seem so sad and terrible a life to dwell at home and withdraw from that noise of vanity abroad which are but the drums and trumpets of the devil to encourage his deluded followers and drown the cries of miserable souls Your dearest friends and chiefest treasure are not abroad in Court or Country but above you and within you where then should your delightful converse be but where your friends and treasure are Matth. 6.21 Phil. 3.20 Col. 3.1 2 3 4. When then is almost nothing to be found in the conversation of the world but discord and distraction and confusion and clamours and malice and treachery is it not better to retire into such a heart where notwithstanding infirmities and some doubts and fears there is order and concord and harmony and such Peace as the world can neither give nor take away O blessed be the hand of Love that blotted out the names of Honour and Riches and Pleasures and carnal interest and accommodations from your heart and inscribed his own in Characters never to be obliterate That turned out Vsurpers and so prepared and furnished your heart as to make and judge it such as no one is worthy of it but himself O what a Court have you chosen for your abode How high and Glorious how pure and holy unchangeable and safe How ambitiously do you avoid ambition How great are you in the lowliness of your mind How high in your Humility Will no lower a place than Heaven content you to converse in For Heart-converse and Heaven-converse are as much one as beholding both the Glass and Face Will no lower correspondents satisfie you than the Host of Heaven Cannot the company of imperfect mortals serve your
he deserveth and causeth him to say I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Micah 7.9 It teacheth us a cautelous suspition of our own understandings and a just submission to those that are wiser than ourselves When Pride keepeth out Wisdom by keeping out the knowledge of our ignorance And as Pliny tells us of some Nations where they are grey-headed in their Infancy and black-headed when they are old So Pride maketh many wise so soon that they never come to be truly wise They think in youth that they have more than the wisdom of age and therefore in age they have less then what beseemed them in youth Every hard report or usage is ready to break a proud mans heart when contempt doth little disquiet the humâ—le because they judge so meanly of themâ—elves The proud are frequently disturbed â—ecause they climb into the seats of others when humility sits quietly and no one bids it â—ise because it knoweth and keepeth its own â—lace Therefore it is that true contrition â—aving once told us of our folly to the Heart â—oth make us walk more circumspectly while â—e live And that no man is better reâ—olved then he that was once in doubt and â—hat no man standeth faster than he that hath â—ad a fall and no man is more safe then he â—hat hath had most assaults If you love your â—afety desire not either to be or to seem too â—igh Be little in your own eyes and be conâ—ent to be so in the eyes of others As for worldly Greatness affect neither the thing â—or the reputation of it Look up if you â—lease to the tops of Steeples Masts and Mountains but stand below if you would â—e safe Though the Chimney be the highest â—art of the house it is not the cleanest or â—he sweetest part it is scorcht more with â—he fire and suffocated with the smoke than â—ther parts And for spiritual endowments â—esire them and improve them but desire not inordinately the reputation of them It selâ—dom increaseth a mans Humility to be reputed Humble And though Humility heâ—â— you to bear applause yet the remnants of priâ—â— are ready to take fire and other sins to get adâ—vantage by it Direct 5. Improve your self-acquainâ—tance to a due apprehension of what is moâ—â— suitable most profitable and necessary foâ— you and what is most hurtfull unsuitablâ— and unnecessary He that hath taken a juâ—â— measure of himself is the better able 〈◊〉 judge of all things else How suitable wiâ—â— Christ and grace appear and how unsuitablâ— will worldly pomp appear to one that trulâ— knows himself How suitable will serioâ—â— fervent worship appear and how unsuitabâ—â— the ludicrous shews of Hypocrites And 〈◊〉 pair of eyes will be valued above many paâ—â— of spectacles and one pair of legs before 〈◊〉 pair of crutches by one that is not a straâ—â—ger to himself He that takes grass and prâ—â—vender to be his best and most delightful foâ—â— hath sure forgotten that he is a man anâ— taketh himself to be but a beast or else 〈◊〉 would not choose the food of a beast nor usâ— himself as a beast If a man knew arigâ—â— the capacity and tendency of the Reasonabâ—â— nature and the evil of sin and the necessitâ— and distress of an unrenewed soul what sweet what longing thoughts would he have of God and all that tendeth to the pleasing and enâ—oying of him How little would he think himself concerned in the trivial matters of â—onour or dishonour riches or poverty favour â—r displeasure further than as they help or â—inder him in the things that are of more â—egard Know your self and you will know what to Love and what to hate what to â—hoose and what to refuse what to hold and what to lose what to esteem and what to â—ight what to fear and when to be couragious â—nd secure the curing the dotage thus would â—ure the night walks of the dreaming vaâ—â—ant world And they that find that muâ—â—ck cureth not the Stone or Gowt would know â—hat mirth and gallantry and vain-glory â—re no preservatives from Hell nor sufficiâ—â—t cure for a guilty soul And that if an â—â—king head must have a better remedy than 〈◊〉 golden Crown and a deaseased body a â—ore suitable cure than a silken suit a diâ—â—ased soul doth call for more Direct 6. Value not your self by mutaâ—e Accidents but by the essence and subâ—â—â—nce of Christianity A mans life conâ—â—teth not in the abundance which he posâ—â—sseth Luke 12.15 Paul knew better what he said when he accounted all but loss and dung for the knowledge and fruition of Jesus Christ Phil. 3.7 8. then they that dote on it as their felicity And is a man to be valued applauded and magnified for his dung or for his personal endowments Is that your perfume that stinketh in the nostrils of men of sounder senses Judge not of the person by his apparel when the foolishest and the worst may wear the same The Master and inhabitants honour the house more than the house doth the Master and inhabitants All the wit and learning in the world with all the Riches Honour and applause yea and all the civility and winning deportment will not make a Christian of an Infidel or Atheist nor a happy of a miserable man As nothing will make a man honourable indeed that hath not the use of Reason which differenceth mâ—â— from bruits so nothing will make or proâ—â— him holy or happy or safe that hath not the Holy Image of God which must difference his children from his enemies If he be unsanctified and be not a new creature and have not the spirit of Christ within him he is an Atheist or Infidel or an ungodly wretch let him be never so rich or great or honourable And as a harlot is never beautifull in the eyes of the wise and chaste so a wicked man is never happy in the eyes of any but his phrenetick society Direct 7. Think not that a few seldom hasty thoughts will bring and keep you in â—cquaintance with your self It must be diligent observation and serious consideration â—hat must accomplish this Many a man walketh where he doth not dwell A transiâ—nt salute is not a sign of intimate familiariâ—y It is enough sometime to step into your â—eighbours house for a charitable visit but â—ou must dwell in your own Be more busie and â—ensorious at home then the proud and the maâ—icious are abroad and be as seldom and tender 〈◊〉 censuring others as such Hypocrites are in â—ensuring themselves Put on your spectacles 〈◊〉 home when you are reading over the Reâ—ister of your consciences but wear them â—â—t as you walk the streets but take up â—ith so much knowledge of ordinary passenâ—ers as you can have without them Think â—â—t that you are unconcerned in the danger or â—â—fety of your neighbour but remember that â—â—u are more concerned in your own It s â—ere most reasonable to say that charity â—â—gins at
â—f heaven be enough to make you a felicity â—nd Eternity be long enough for your fruiâ—â—on of it then never think hardly of God â—or any of his chastisements Lazarus reâ—enteth not there that he was poor nor Job â—hat he was covered with sores nor David â—hat he washed his couch with tears and â—hat his sore ran and ceased not The longâ—st of our sorrows will there be reviewed â—s short in respect of our endless joys â—nd the sharpest of our pains as nothing â—o those pleasures Madam experience â—s well as faith assureth me that it is good â—â—r us that we are afflicted And though â—â—r the sake of others I shall earnestly â—eseech the Lord that he will not unseasoâ—ably remove such as you from this unâ—orthy generation yet I doubt not but â—our removal and sufferings in the way â—ill advantage you for your Everlasting Rest And for my self I desire that my loâ—â— may still fall with those that follow Christ through tribulation bearing the cross and crucified to the world and waiting for his appearance desiring to be absent from the body and present with the Lord not with those that are fed as beasts for the slaughter and prosper a while in their iniquity till sudden destruction come upon them and at last their sins do find them out when the wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the nations that forget God Psal 9.17 Numb 32.23 1 Thes 5.3 Phil. 3.19 And that these words of life may be engraven upon my heart Psal 63.3 Thy loving kindness is better than life Psal 73.26 My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Rom. 8.28 All things work together for good to them that love God Joh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live also Col. 3.3 4. Our life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in Glory and that I may be fit for the Title of the Beloved Apostle Rev. 1.9 though as a servant to you and the Church of God Your Brother and Companion in tribulation and in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ Rich. Baxter Nov. 1. 1661. To my dearly beloved the Inhabitants of the Burrough and Parish of Kederminster in Worcestershire AS I never desired any greater preferment in this world than to have continued in the work of my Ministry among you so I once thought my days would have been ended in that desired station But we are unmeet to tell God how he shall dispose of us or to foreknow what changes he intends to make Though you are low in the world and have not the Riches which cause mens estimation with the most I see no probability that we should have been separated till death could I but have obtained leave to preach for nothing But being forbidden to preach the Gospel in that Diocess I must thankfully take the liberty which shall anywhere else be vouchsafed me And while I may enjoy it I take it not for my duty to be over querulous though the wound that is made by my separation from you be very deep And though to strangers it will seem probable that such severity had never been exercised against me but for some heynous crime yet to you that have known me I shall need to say but little in my defence The great crime which is openly charged on me and for which I am thought unworthy to preach the Gospel even where there is no other to preach is a matter that you are unacquainted with and therefore as you have heard me publikely accused of it I am bound to render you such an account as is necessary to your just information and satisfaction It pleased the Kings Majesty in the prosecution of his most Christian resolution of uniting his differing subjects by the way of mutual approaches and abatements to grant a Commission to twelve Bishops and nine assistants on the one side and to one Bishop and eleven other Divines and nine assistants on the other side to treat about such alterations of the Liturgie as are necessary to the satisfying of tender consciences and to the restoring of unity and peace My experiences in a former Treaty for Reconciliation in matter of Discipline made me intreat those to whom the nomination on the one side was committed to excuse me from the service which I knew would prove troublesome to my self and ungrateful to others but I could not prevail But the Work it self I very much approved as to be done by fitter and more acceptable persons Being commanded by the Kings Commission I took it to be my duty to be faithful and to plead for such Alterations as I knew were necessary to the assigned ends thinking it to be treachery to his Majesty that entrusted us and to the Church and cause for which we were entrusted if under pretence of making such Alterations as were necessary to the two forementioned ends I should have silently yielded to have No Alterations or next to none In the conclusion when the chief work was done by writing a Committee of each part was appointed to manage a Disputation in presence by writing also Therein those of the other part formed an Argument whose Major proposition was to this sense for I have no copy Whatsoever book enjoyneth nothing but what is of it self lawful and by lawful authority enjoyneth nothing that is sinful We denyed this proposition and at last gave divers Reasons of our denyal among which one was that It may be unlawful by Accident and therefore sinful You now know my crime It is my concurring with learned reverend Brethren to give this Reason of our denyal of a proposition Yet they are not forbidden to preach for it and I hope shall not be but only I. You have publikely heard from a mouth that should speak nothing but the words of Charity Truth and Soberness especially there that this was a desperate shift that men at the last extremity are forced to and inferring that then neither God nor man can enjoyn without sin In City and Country this soundeth forth to my reproach I should take it for an act of clemency to have been smitten professedly for nothing and that it might not have been thought necessary to afflict me by a defamation that so I might seem justly afflicted by a prohibition to preach the Gospel But indeed is there in these words of ours so great a crime Though we doubted not but they knew that our Assertion made not Every evil accident to be such as made an Imposition unlawful yet we exprest this by word to them at that time for fear of being misreported and I told it to the Right Reverend Bishop when he forbad me to preach and gave this as a reason And I must confess I am still guilty of so much weakness as to be confident that some things not evil of themselves may have Accidents so evil as may
to be ignorant of our â—elves 3. What evils follow this Ignorance â—f our selves and what benefits self-knowâ—â—dge would procure 4. How we should â—â—prove this doctrine by Application and â—â—actice Of the first but briefly I. SElf-knowledge is thus distinguished according to the object 1. There is a Physical self knowledge when a man knows what he is as a man What his soul is and what his body and what the compound called man The Doctrine of Mans Nature or this part of Physicks is so necessary to all that it is first laid down even in the Holy Scriptures in Gen. ch 1 2 3. before his Duty is expressed And it is presupposed in all the moral passages of the word and in all the preaching of the gospel The Subject is presupposed to the Adjuncts The Subjects of Gods Kingdom belong to the Constitution and therefore to be known before the Legislation and Judgement which are the parts of the Administration Morality alway presupposeth nature The Species is in order before the separable Accidents Most ridiculously therefore doth Ignorance plead for it self against Knowledge in them that cry down this part of Physicks as Humane Learning unnecessary to the Disciplâ—â— of Christ What excellent holy Meditations of Humane nature do you find oft in 〈◊〉 and in Davids Psalms Ps 139. concluding 〈◊〉 the praise of the incomprehensible Creator ver 14. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made Marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well 2. There is a Moral Self-knowledge very necessary And this is The knowing of our selves in Relation to Gods Law or to his Judgement The former is the knowledge of our selves in respect of our Duty the second in respect of the Reward or Punishment And both of them have respect to the Law of Nature and Works or to the Remedying Law of Grace The Ethical knowledge of our selves or that which respecteth the Precept and our Duty is twofold The first is as we have performed that Duty The second as we have violated the Law by non-performance or transgression The first is the knowledge of our selves as Good the second as Evil. And both are either the knowledge of our Habits good or evil or of our Acts How we are Morally Inclined disposed or habituated or what and how we have Done We must know the Good estate of our Nature that we were created in the Bad estate of sinfull nature that we are fallen into the actual sin committed against the Law of nature and what sin we have committed against the Law of Grace and whether we have obeyed the call of the Gospel of salvation or not So that as mans state considered Ethically is threefold Institutus Destitutus Restitutus Infirmatus Deformatus Reformatus the state of Upright nature the State of Sin Original and Actual and the state of Grace we must know what we are in respect to every one of these And as to the Judicial knowledge of our selves that is as we stand related to the Promises and Threatnings the Judgement the Reward and Punishment we must know first what is due to us according to the Law of Nature and then what is due to us according to the tenour of the Law of Grace By the Law of Nature or of Works Death is the Due of fallen mankind but no man by it can lay claim to Heaven All men are under its curse or condemnation till pardoned by Christ but no man can be Justified by it By the Promise of the Gospel all true Believers renewed and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ are Justified and made the sons of God and heirs of everlasting glory To know whether we are yet delivered from the condemnation of the Law and whether our sins are pardoned or not and whether we are the children of God and have any part in the Heavenly Glory is much of the self-knowledge that is here intended in the Text and that which most nearly concerneth the solid comfort of our souls II. BUt is all self-ignorance a shame or dangerous Answ 1. It is no other shame then what is common to humane frailty to be ignorant of much of the mystery of our Natural Generation Constitution Integrall parts and Temperament There is not a nerve or artery or vein nor the bredth of a hand from head to foot but hath something unknown to the most excellent Philosopher on Earth This little world called Man is a compound of wonders Both Soul and Body have afforded matter of endless controversie and voluminous Disputations to the most Learned men which will not admit of a full decision till we are past this state of darkness and mortality 2. There are many Controversies about the nature derivation and punishment of Original sin which a humble and diligent Christian may possibly be ignorant of 3. The degrees of Habitual sin considedered simply or proportionably and respectively to each other may be much unknown to many that are willing and diligent to know And so may divers actual sins such as we know not to be sin through our imperfect understanding of the Law and such as through frailty in a crowd of actions escape our particular observation And the sinfulness or Aggravations of every sin are but imperfectly known and observed by the best 4. The Nature and beauty of the Image of God as first planted on created man and since Restored to man Redeemed the manner of the Spirits acccess operation testimony and inhabitation are all but imperfectly known by the wisest of Believers The frame or admirable composure or contexture of the New-man in each of the renewed faculties the connexion order beauty and special use of each particular grace are observed but imperfectly by the best 5. The very uprightness and sincerity of our own hearts in Faith Hope Love Repentance and Obedience is usually unknown to Incipients or young beginners in Religion and to the weaker sort of Christians how old soever in profession and to melancholy persons who can have no thoughts of themselves but sad and fearfull tending to despair and to lapsed and declining Christians and also to many an upright soul from whom in some cases of special tryal God seems to hide his pleased face And though these infirmities are their shame yet are they not the Characters or Prognosticks of their misery and everlasting shame 6. The same persons must needs be unacquainted with their Justification Reconciliation Adoption and Title to everlasting blessedness as long as they are uncertain of theie sincerity Yea though they uprightly examine themselves and desire help of their Guides and watch and pore continually upon their hearts and wayes and daily beg of God to acquaint them with their spiritual condition they may yet be so far unacquainted with it as to pass an unrighteous judgement on themselves and condemn themselves when God hath justified them But 1. To be totally ignorant of the excellency and capacity of your immortal souls 2. To
mens and of those that are suitable to their dispositions interests or examples and those that are against them They seem to judge of the actions by the persons and not of the persons by the actions Though he be himself a sensualist a worldling drowned in Ambition and Pride whose heart is turned away from God and utterly strange to the mysterie of Regeneration and a heavenly life yet all this is scarce discerned by him and is little troublesome and less odious then the failings of another whose heart and life is devoted unto God The different opinions or modes and circumstances of worship in another that truly feareth God is matter of their severer censures and reproach then their own omissions and aversness and enmity to holiness and the dominion of their deadly sins It seems to them more intolerable for another to pray without a Book then for themselves to pray without any serious belief or love or holy desire without any feeling of their sins or misery or wants that is to pray with the lips without a heart to pray to God without God even without the knowledge or love of God and to pray without prayers It seemed to the Hypocritical Pharisees a greater crime in Christ and his Disciples to violate their Traditions in not washing before they eat to break the Ceremonious rest of their Sabbath by healing the diseased or plucking ears of corn then in themselves to hate and persecute the true believers and worshippers of God and to kill the Lord of life himself They censured the Samaritans for not worshipping at Jerusalem but censured not themselves for not worshipping God that is a Spirit in Spirit and in Truth Which makes me remember the course of their successors the Ceremonious Papists that condemn others for Hereticks and fry them in the flames for not believing that Bread is no Bread and Wine is no Wine and that Bread is to be adored as God and that the souls of dead men know the hearts of all that pray to them in the world at once and that the Pope is the Vice-Christ and Soveraign of all the Christians in the world and for reading the Scriptures and praying in a known tongue when they forbid it and for not observing a world of Ceremonies when all this enmity to Reason Piety Charity Humanity all their Religious Tyranny Hypocrisie and Cruelty do seem but holy zeal and laudable in themselves To lie dissemble forswear depose and murder Princes is a smaller matter to them when the Pope dispenseth with it and when it tends to the advantage of their faction which they call the Church then to eat flesh on Friday or in Lent to neglect the Mass or Images or Crossing c. And it makes me remember Bishop Halls Description of An Hypocrite He turneth all gnats into Camells and cares not to undo the world for a circumstance Flesh on Friday is more abominable to him then his neighbours bed He abhors more not to uncover at the name of Jesus then to swear by name of God c. It seems that Prelats were guilty of this in Bernards dayes who saith Praelati nostri calicem linquunt Camelum deglutiunt dum majora permittentes minora discutiunt Optimi rerum aestimatores qui magnum in minimis parvam aut nullam in maximis adhibent diligentiam i. e. Our Prelats strain at a gnat and swallow a Camel while permitting greater matters they discuss or sift the less Excellent estimators of things indeed that in the smallest matters imploy great diligence but in the greatest little or none at all And the cause of all this partiality is that Men are unacquainted with themselves They love and cherish the same corruptions in themselves which they should hate and reprehend in others And saith Hierom Quomodo potest praeses Ecclesiae auferre malum de medio ejus qui in delictum simile corruerit aut qua libertate corripere peccantem potest cum tacitus ipse sibi respondeat eadem se admisisse quae corripit i. e. How can a Prelat of the Church reform the evil that is in it that rusheth into the like offence Or with what freedom can he rebuke a sinner when his conscience secretly tells him that he hath himself committed the same faults which he reproveth Would men but first be acquainted with themselves and pass an impartial judgement on the affections and actions that are nearest them and that most concern them they would be more competent and more compassionate Judges of their brethren that are now so hardly used by them It s excellent advice that Austin gives us Quum aliquem reprehendere nos necessitas coegerit cogitemus utrum tale sit vitium quod nunquam habuimus tunc cogitemus nos homines esse habere potuisse vel quod tale habuimus jam non habemus tunc memoria tangat communis fragilitatis ut illam correctionem non odium sed misericordia praecedat Sin autem invenerimus nos in eodem vitio esse non objurgemus sed ingemiscamus ad aequaliter deponendum invitemus i. e. When necessity constraineth us to reprove any one let us think whether it be such a vice as we never had our selves and then let us think that we are men and might have had it Or if we once had such but have not now then let the remembrance of common frailty touch us that compassion and not hatred may lead the way to our reproof But if we find that we have the same vice our selves let us not chide but groan and move or desire that we may both equally lay it by 5. It shews how little men know themselves when they must needs be the Rule to all other men as far as they are able to command it and that in the matters that mens salvation dependeth on and in the smallest tender disputable points and even in those things where themselves are most unfit to judge In every controverted point of doctrine though such as others have much better studied then themselves he that hath strength to suppress all those that differ from him must ordinarily be the umpire so is it even in the modes and circumstances of Worship Perhaps Christ may have the honour to be called the King of the Church and the Scripture have the honour to be called his Laws but indeed it is they â—hat would be the Lords themselves and 〈◊〉 is their Wills and Words that must be the â—aws and this under pretence of subâ—erving Christ and interpreting his Laws â—hen they have talkt the utmost for Counâ—ils Fathers Church Tradition it is â—hemselves that indeed must be all these â—or nothing but their own conceits and Wills must go for the sense of Decrees or Canons Fathers or Tradition Even they â—hat hate the power and serious practice of Religion would fain be the Rule of Reliâ—ion to all others And they that never â—new what it was to worship God in Spiâ—it and
Peace Content or Rest they lay the blame on this place or that this or that person or estate They think if they had their mind in this or that they should be well And therefore they are still contriving for somewhat whch they want and studying changes or longing after this or that which they imagine would work the Cure When alas poor souls the 〈◊〉 the sickness the want is in themselves It is a wiser mind a better more holy heavenly Will that 's wanting to them without which nothing in the world will solidly content and comfort them Seneca can teach them this much by the light of Nature Non longa peregrinatione nec locorum varietatibus tristitiam mentis gravitatémque discuties animum debes mutare non coelum licèt vastum trajeceris mare sequuntur te quocunque perveneris vitia Quid miraris tibi peregrinationes non prodesse cum te circumferas Premit te eadem causa quae expulit Quid terrarum juvare novitas potest Quid cognitio urbium aut locorum In irritum cedit ista jactantia Onus animi deponendum est non antè tibi ullus placebit locus Vadis huc illuc ut excutias incidens pondus quod ipsa jactatione incommodius fit sicut in navi onera immota minùs urgent inaequaliter convoluta citiùs eam partem in quam incumbunt demergunt Quicquid facis contra te facis motu ipso noces tibi aegrum enim concutis At cum istud exemeris malum omnis mutatio loci jucundus fiet In ultimas expellaris terras licèt in quolibet Barbariae angulo colloceris hospitalis tibi illa qualiscunque sedes erit Magis Quis veneris quam Quò interest that is It is not by long travels or by change of places that you can discuss the sadness and heaviness of the mind It s the Mind and not the Climate that you should change though you pass the vastest sea your vices will follow you whithersoever you go Why marvellest thou that travels avail thee not when thou carriest about thy self The same cause that drove thee away doth follow thee What can the novelty of countreys avail Or the knowledge of Cities and places This tossing up and down is vain It s the load of thy mind that must be laid down Till that be done no place will please thee Thou goest up and down to shake off a burden that 's fastened on thee which even by thy motion doth become more troublesome As in a ship the setled weight is least troublesome when things unequally thrown together do sink the part in which they lye What thou dost thou dost it against thy self and hurtest thy self by the very motion For thou shakest a sick person But when once thou hast taken out of thy self the evil every change of place will be pleasant Though thou be expelled into the remotest lands or placed in any corner of Barbary it will be however to thee a seat of hospitality It more concerneth thee to know Who or What thou art thy self that comest thither then Whither it is that thou comest Did you know your selves in all your griefs it s there that you would suspect and find your malady and there that you would most solicitously seek the cure BY this time if you are willing you may see where lyeth the disease and misery of the world and also what must be the cure Man hath lost himself by seeking himself He hath lost himself in the losse of God He departed from God that he might enjoy himself and so is estranged from God and himself He left the Sun and retired into darkness that he might behold himself and not the Light and now beholdeth neither himself nor the light For he can not behold himself but by the Light As if the Body should forsake the Soul and say I will no longer serve another but will be my own what would such a selfish separation procure but the converting of a Body into a loathsome Carkass and a senseless clod Thus hath the Soul dejected it selfe by turning to it self and seperating from God without whom it hath neither Life nor Light nor Joy By desiring a selfish kind of Knowledge of Good and evill withdrawing from its just dependance upon God it hath involved it self in Care and misery and lost the quieting delighting Knowledge which it had in God And now poor man is lost in error He is stragled so farre from home that he knoweth not where he is nor which way to returne till Christ in mercy seeke and save him Math. 18.11 Luk. 19.10 Yet could we but get men to know that they do not know themselves there were the greater hope of their recovery But this is contrary to the nature of their distemper An eye that is blinded by a suffusion or Cataract seeth not the thing that blindeth it It is the same Light that must shew them themselves and their ignorance of themselves Their self-ignorance is part of the self-evill which they have to know Those troubled souls that complain that they know not themselves doe shew that they begin at least to know themselves But a Pharisee will say Are we blind also Joh. 9.40 They are too blind to know that they are blind The Gospell shall be rejected the Apostles persecuted Christ himself abused and put to death the Nation ruined themselves and their posterity undone by the Blindness of these Hypocrites before they will perceive that they are Blind and that they know not God or themselves Alas the long calamityes of the Church the distempers and confusions in the state the lamentable divisions and dissensions among believers have told the world how little most men know themselves and yet they themselves will not perceive it They tell it aloud to all about them by their self-conceitedness and cruelty uncharitable censures reproaches and impositions that they know not themselves and yet you cannot make them know it Their afflicted brethren feel it to their smart the suffering grieved Churches feel it thousands groan under it that never wronged them and yet you cannot make them feel it Did they well know themselves to be Men so many would not use themselves like beasts and care so little for their most noble part Did they know themselves aright to be but Men so many would not set up themselves as Gods They would not arrogate a Divine authority in the matters of God and the Consciences of others as the Roman Prelats do Nor would they desire so much that the observation reverence admiration love and applause of all should be turned upon them nor be so impatient when they seem to be neglected nor make so great a matter of their wrongs as if it were some Deity that were injured O what a change it would make in the world if men were brought to the knowledge of themselves How many would weep that now laugh and live in mirth and pleasure How many would lament
amplexandum totum corâ—â—â— expositum ad redimendum saith Augustiâ—â— Behold the wounds of Christ as he is hangâ—â—g the blood of him dying the price of him â—â—deeming the scars of him rising His Head 〈◊〉 bowed to Kiss thee his heart open to love â—â—ee his arms open to embrace thee â—is whole body exposed to redeem thee Homo factus est hominis Factor ut sugeret â—â—bera regens sydera ut esuriret Panis ut â—â—â—eret Fons dormiret Lux ab itinere via â—â—tigaretur falsis testibus Veritas occulâ—retur Index vivâ—rum mortuâ—rum à juâ—â—â—ce mortali judicaretur ab injustis justiâ—â—a damnaretur flagellis disciplina caedoreâ—â—ur spinis botrâ—s coronaretur in ligno â—undamentum suspenderetur virtus infirâ—aretur salus vulneraretur vita â—oreretur saith Aug. that is The Maker â—f man was made man that he might suck â—â—e breasts that rules the starrs that Bread â—ight hunger the Spring or fountain might â—hirst the Light might steep the Way â—ight be weary in his journey that the Truth might be hidden by false witnesses That the Judge of quick and dead might be â—udged by amortal judge Iustice might be condemned by the unjust Discipline might 〈◊〉 scourged the Cluster of grapes might be â—rowned with thorns the Foundation might be hanged on a tree that Strength â—ight be weakned that Health might be wounded and that Life it self might dyâ— This is the wonderfull mystery of Love which will entertain the soul that come to Christ and which thou must study 〈◊〉 know when thou knowest thy self But 〈◊〉 then all these will be riddles to thee oâ— little relished and Christ will seem to thy neglecting heart to have dyed and done 〈◊〉 this in vain And hence it is that as proud ungodly sensuall men were never sound Believers so they oft-times fall from that opinionative common faith which they had and of all meâ— do most easily turn Apostates It being just with God that they should be so far forsaken as to vilifye the remedie that would not know their sin misery but love it and pertinaciously hold it as their felicity 4. If you Know not your selves you will not know what to do with your selves nor to what end and for what work you are to live This makes the Holy work neglected and most men live to little purpose wasting their daies in matters that them selves will call impertinent when they come to die as if they were good for nothing else Whereas if they knew them selves they would know that they are made and fitted for more noble workes O man if thou â—ere acquainted well with thy faculties â—â—d frame thou wouldest perceive the â—ame of God thy Maker to be so deeply â—â—graven in thy nature even in all thy parts â—nd powers as should Convince thee that â—â—ou wast made for him that all thou art and 〈◊〉 thou hast is nothing worth but for his â—â—rvice As all the parts and motions of 〈◊〉 clock or watch are but to tell the hour 〈◊〉 the day Thou wouldst know then the â—eaning of Sanctification and Holiness â—hat it signifyeth but the Giving God his â—wn and is the first part of Justice withâ—ut which no rendering men their due can â—â—ove thee Just Thou wouldst then know â—â—e unreasonableness and injustice of ungodâ—â—ness and all sin And that to serve thy â—â—eshly lusts and pleasures with those noble â—â—culties that were purposely formed to â—ove and serve the Eternall God is more â—â—bsurd and villainous then to employ the â—ighest officers of the King in the sweepâ—ng of your chimneyes or the serving of â—our swine Remember it unreasonable â—cutish man the next time thou art going to thy lusts and sensuall deâ—â—ghts It is no wiser a course thou â—akest It is no more honorable or â—ust but as much worse as God is to be preferred to a King and as thy 〈◊〉 is worse then the serving of thy swiâ—e O man didst thou but know thy self and see what employment thy facultyes are made thou wouldst lift up thy head and seriously think who holds the reins who keepeâ— thy breath yet in thy nostrills and continueth thee in life And where it is that thou must shortly fix thy unchangeable abode And what is now to be done in preparation for such a day Os homini sublime dedit c. Thou wouldst know that thou hadst not that Reason and that will and executive power to rowl in the earth and be but a cunning kind of beast that hath wit to play the fool and can ingeniously live below understanding and do that with argument which other bruits can do without it Thou wouldst know that thy higher faculties were not made to serve the lower 〈◊〉 thy Reason to serve thy sensuall delight the horse was not made to ride the man nor the master to follow and attend the dâ—g O man hadst thou not lost the Knowledge of thy self thou wouldst be so far from wondering at a Holy life that thou wouldst look upon an unholy person as a monster and wouldst hear the deriderâ— and opposers of a holy life as thou wouldst hear him that were deriding a man because he is not a swine or were reproaching men of honor and learning because they live not as an Ass I confess my soul is too apt to lose its lively sense of all these things But when ever it is awake I am forc't to say in these kind of meditations If I had not a God to know and think on to Love and honor to seek and serve what had I to do with my understanding will and all my powers What should I do with life and time What use should I make of Gods provisions What could I find to do in the world that is worthy of a man Were it not as good lie still and sleep out my daies and professedly do nothing as to go dreaming with a seeming seriousness and wander about the world as in my sleep and do nothing with such a troublesome stir as sensuall worldly persons do Could not I heave plaid the beast without a Reasonable free-working soul Let them turn from God and neglect the conduct of the Redeemer and disregard the holy approaches and breathings and workings of the soul towards its beloved Center and felicity that know not what an immortal soul is or know how els to imploy their facultyes with satisfaction or conttent unto themselves I profess here 〈◊〉 in his presence that is the Father of spirits and before Angels and men I do not 〈◊〉 know not what els to do with my soul that 's worth the doing but what is subservient to its proper object its end and everlasting Rest If the Holy service of God and the preparation for Heaven and making after Christ and happiness be forbidden me I have no more to do in the world that will satisfie my Reason or satisfie my affections or that as a man or a Christian I can own And it s as good not live as to be deprived
with a Medice cura teipsum Physitian heal thy self with a Loripidem rectus derideat Aethiopem abbus c. and a Primus jussa subi c. and a Qui alterum incusat probri ipsum se intueri oportet First sweep before your own door It s ridiculous for the blind to reproach the pur-blind Qua in aliis reprehendis in teipso maximè reprehende Reprehend that more in thy self which thou reprehendest in another The eye of the soul is not like the eye of the body that can see other things but not it self There are two evils that Christ noteth in the reproofs of such as are unacquainted with theselves in Math. 7.3 4. Hypocrisie and Vnfitness to reprove Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye but considerest not the beam that is in thy own eye Or how wilt thou say to thy brother Let me pull out the moat out of thine eye and behold a beam is in thy own eye Thou Hypocrite first cast the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brothers eye Thy own vices do corrupt thy judgement and cause thee to excuse the like in others and to accuse the virtue that in others is the condemner of thy vice and to represent all as odious that is done by those that by their piety and reproofs are become odious to thy guilty and malicious soul Dost thou hate a holy heavenly life and art void of the love of God and of his servants Hast thou a carnal dead unconverted heart art thou a presumptuous careless worldly wretch Hast thou these beams in thy own eye and art thou fit to quarrel with others that are better then thy self about a Ceremony or a Holy day or a circumstance of Church-Government or Worship or a doubtfull controverted opinion and to be pulling these motes out of thy Brothers eye Yea rather wouldst pull out his eyes to get out the mote First get an illuminated mind and a renewed sanctified heart be acquainted with the Love of God and of his Image and cast out the beam of infidelity ungodliness worldliness sensuality malice and hypocrisie from thine own eye and then come and play the Oculist with thy brother and help to cure him of his lesser involuntary errors and infirmities Till then the beam of thy sensuality and impiety will make thee a very incompetent Judge of the mote of a different opinion in thy brother Every word that thou speakest in condemnation of thy brother for his opinion or infirmity is a double condemnation of thy self for thy ungodly fleshly life And if thou wilt needs have judgement to begin at the house of God for the failings of his sincere and faithfull servants it may remember thee to thy terror what the end of them shall be that obey not the Gospel of God And if you will condemn the righteous for their lamented weaknesses where think you the ungodly and the sinner shall appear 1 Pet. 4.17 18. 11. If you begin not at your selves you can make no progress to a just and edifying knowledge of extrinsick things Mans self is the Alphabet or Primer of his learning Non pervenitur ad summa nisi per inferiora You cannot come to the top of the stairs â—f you begin not at the bottom Frustra corâ—dis oculum erigit ad videndum Deum qui â—â—ondum idoneus est ad videndum scipsum Prius enim est ut cognoscas invisibilia spiritus tui quà m possis esse idoneus 〈◊〉 cognoscendum invisibilia Dei si non potes te cognoscere non praesumas appreâ—endere ea quae sunt supra te inquit Hug. de Anim. i. e. In vain doth he lift up his heart to see God that is yet unfit to see himself For thou must first know the invisible things of thy own spirit before thou canst be fit to know the invisible things of God And if thou canst not know thy self presume not to know the things that are above thy self You cannot see the face which it representeth if you will not look upon the glass which representeth it God is not visible but appeareth to us in his creatures and especially in 〈◊〉 selves And if we know not our selves wâ— cannot know God in our selves Praecipuâ— principale est speculum ad videndum Deum animus rationalis intuens scipsum inâ—â— Hug. The principal glass for the beholdinâ— of God is the Resonable soul beholding it self And you will make but an unhappy progress in your study of the Works of God if you begin not with your selves Yoâ— can know but little of the Works of Nature till you know your own nature And you can know as little of the Works of Grace till self-acquaintance help you to know thâ— nature and danger of those diseases that Grace must cure The unhappy error 〈◊〉 presumptuous students about their owâ— hearts misleadeth and perverteth them in the whole course of their studies that by all they do but profit in misapplied notions and self-deceit It s a lamentable fight to see a man turning over Fathers and Councils and diligently studying words and notions that is himself in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity and never knew it nor studieth the cure And it s a pittifull thing to see such in a Pulpit teaching the people to know the mysteries of salvation that know not nor ever laboured to know what sins are predominant in their own hearts and lives or Whether they stand before God in a justified or a condemned state To hear a poor unsanctified man as boldly treating of the mysteries of sanctification as if he had felt them in himself and a man that is condemned already and stayeth but a while till the stroke of death for final execution to treat as calmly of judgement and damnation as if he were out of danger and exhorting others to escape the misery which he is in himself and never dreameth of it This sheweth how sad a thing it is for men to he ignorant of themselves To see men run out into damnable and dangerous errors on each hand some into the proud self-conceitedness of the Phanaticks Enthusiasts and Libertines and some into contempt and scorn of holiness and every one confident even to rage in his own distractions this doth but shew us whither men will go that are unacquainted with themselves This also maketh us so troubled with our auditors that when they would learn the truth that should convert and save them are carping and quarrelling with us and hear us as the Pharisees and Herodians heard Christ to catch him in his words Mark 12.13 As if a dying man in a consumption imagining that he is well should go to the Physicion to make a jeast of him or seek to ruine him for telling him that he is sick And how frowardly do they reject the wisest counsel and cast the medicine with unthankfull indignation into the face of the
Physicion And they must tell us themselves what medicine must be given them what doctrine and what administrations they must have But self-acquaintance would teach them to understand that of Augustine Novit medicus quid salutiferum quidve contrarium petat aegrotus Aegroti estis nolite ergo dictare quae vobis medicamnia velit opponere Yea they that will not be directed or healed by us will blame us if others be not healed and hit the Minister in the teeth with the errors and faults of his unteachable hearers Though we do our best in season and out of season and they cannot tell us what we have neglected on our part that was like to do the cure though I confess we are too often negligent and though we succeed to the conversion of many others yet must we be reproached with the disobedience of the impenitent as if it were not grief enough to us to have our labours frustrate and see them obstinate in their sin and misery but we must also be blamed or derided for our calamity Fecerit postquam quicquid jubet ipsa medendi Norma nisi valeat subitoque revixerit aeger Murmurat insipiens vulgus linguaq loquaci Et loquitur de te convitia talia jactans Hen mihi quam stultum est medicorum credere nugis As if they knew not the power of the disease and what a wonder of mercy it is that any and so many are recovered Non est in medico semper reveletur ut aeger Interdum docta plus valet arte malum None would die if Physicions could cure all And none would perish if Ministers could save all Rhetor non semper persuadebit nec medicus semper sanabat saith the Philosopher They cast away the medicine and then blame the Physicion Crudelem vel infalicem medicum intemeperans eger facit An intemperate unruly patient maketh the Physition seem cruel or unsuccesfull 12. Lastly consider but how many how great and necessary things concerning your selves you have to know and it will shew you how needfull it is to make this the first of your studies To know what you are as men with what faculties you are endowed and to what use for what end you live in what Relation you stand to God and to your fellow creatures what duties you owe what sin is in your hearts and what hath been by commission and omission in your lives what humiliation contrition and repentance you have for that sin Whether you have truly entertained an offered Christ and are renewed and sanctified by his spirit and unreservedly devoted to God and resolved to be entirely his Whether you Love him above all and your neighbours as your selves Whether you are Justified and have forgiveness of all your sins Whether you can bear afflictions from the hand or for the sake of Christ even to the forsaking of all the world for the hopes of the heavenly everlasting treasure how you perform the daily works of your relations and callings Whether you are ready to die and are safe from the danger of damnation O did you but know how it concerneth you to get all these questions well resolved you would find more matter for your studies in your selves then in many volumes You would then perceive that the matters of your own hearts and lives are not so lightly and carelesly to be past over as they ordinarily be by drowsie sinners To consider but Quid Quis Qualis sis Quid in natura Quis in persona Qualis in vita ut Bern. would find you no small labour And it would redound saith another in utilitatem sui charitatem proximi contemptum mundi amorem Dei to our own profit charity to our neighbour the contempt of the world and the love of God If you have but many weighty businesses to think on in the world you are so taken up with care that you cannot turn away your thoughts And yet do you find no work at home where you have such a world of things to think on and such as of all the matters in the world do nearliest concern you Having shewed you so much Reason for this duty let me now take leave to invite you all to the serious study of your selves It is a duty past all controversie agreed on by heathens as well as Christians and urged by them in the generall though many of the particulars to be knowne are beyond their light It brutifyeth man to be ignorant of himself Man that is in honour and understandeth not himself especially is as the beasts that perish Psal 49.20 saith Boetius Humana natura infra bestias redigitur si se nosse desierit Nam caeteris animantibus sese ignorare natura est hominibus vitio venit Its worse then beastly to be ignorant of our selves it being a vice in us which is nature in them Come home you wandering self-neglecting souls Lose not your selves in a wilderness or tumult of impertinent vaine distracting things your work is neerer you The country that you should first survey and travaile is within you from which you must pass to that above you when by losing your selves in this without you you will find your selves before you are aware in that below you And then as Gregory speakes he that was stultus in culpa a foole in sining will be sapiens in poena wise in suffering you shall then have time enough to review your lives and such constraining help to know your selves as you cannot resist O that you would know but a little of that now that then you must elss know in that overwhelming evidence which will everlastingly confound you And that you would now thinke of that for a timely cure which els must be thought of endlesly in despair Come home then and see what work is there Let the eyes of fooles be in the corners of the earth Leave it to men besides themselves to live as without themselves and to be still from home and waste that time in other business that was given them to prepare for life eternall Laudabilior est animus cui nota est infirmitas propria quam qui ea non perspecta mania muÌ„di vias syderum fundamenta terrarum fastigia caelorum scrutatur inquit August The soule is more laudable that knowes its own infirmity then he that without discerning this doth search after the compass of the world the courses of the starres the foundations of the earth and the heights of the heavens Dost thou delight in the mysteryes of nature consider well the mysteryes of thy own Mirantur aliqui altiudines montium ingentes fluctus mariâ— altissimos lapsus fluminum Oceani â—â—bitum gyros syderum relinquunt seipsos nec mirantur saith Augustine some men admeire the heights of mountaines the huge waves of the sea the great falls of the rivers the compass of the Ocean and the circuit of the stars and they passe by them themseves without admiration The compendium of all
ready to discourse about matters of â—he heart and that they so much relish â—â—ch discourse and that they have so much 〈◊〉 say when you come to such a subject â—t is because they know themselves in some â—ood measure They have studied and â—re acquainted with the Heart And thereâ—ore can talk the more sensibly of what is â—ontained in a book which they have so â—ften read and are so conversant in â—alk with them about the matters â—f the world and perhaps you may â—ind them more simple and ignorant then many of their neighbours But when you â—alk about the Corruptions of the heart â—nd the secret workings of them the matâ—er and order and government of the thoughts and affections and passions 〈◊〉 wants and weaknesses of believers the nâ—â—ture and workings of inward temptationâ— the wayes of grace and of the exercise 〈◊〉 each grace the motions and operatioâ— of the spirit upon the heart the breathiâ—â— of Love and desire after God the aâ—â—dresses of the soul to Christ by faitâ— and dependance on him and receiviâ—â— from him about these secret matters 〈◊〉 the Heart he is usually more able in dâ—â—â—course then many learned men that are 〈◊〉 sanctified And hence it is that upright self-obsâ—â—â—ving souls are so full in prayer and 〈◊〉 to pour out their hearts so enlargedly â—â—â—fore the Lord in confessing their sins 〈◊〉 petitioning for grace and opening thâ— necessities and thanking God for spiritâ—â—â— mercies Some that are themselves acquaiâ—â—â—ed with themselves and the workings 〈◊〉 grace despise all this and say It is but 〈◊〉 ability to speak of the things which they 〈◊〉 most used to I doubt not but meer acâ—quired abilities and custom may advanâ—â— some hypocrites to pray in the languagâ— of experienced Christians And I doubt noâ— but natural impediments and want of use anâ— of right education may cause many to 〈◊〉 â—onvenient expressions that have true deâ—â—res But the question is from whence it â—â—mes to pass that so great a number of â—hose that are most carefull and diligent â—or their souls are so full in holy conference â—â—d prayer when very few others that exâ—â—ll them in learning and natural parts â—ave any such ability And doubtless the â—hief reason is that the care and study of â—hese Christians hath been most about their â—piritual estate And that which they set â—heir hearts upon they use their tongues â—pon Generally it cannot be imagined why they should use themselves to those â—tudies and exercises which procure those â—bilities but that they highlyest esteem â—nd most seriously regard the matters that concern their salvation which are the subâ—ect I doubt not but God bestoweth his gifts upon men in the use of means and that it is partly use that maketh men able and ready in these services of God But what reason can be given why one part of men use themselves to such imployments and another part are unable through disuse but that some do set their hearts upon it and make it their business to know themselves their sins and wants and seek relief when by the others all this is neglected Some hypocrites may be moved by lower ends both in this and in other duties of Religion but that 's no rule for our judgeing of the intentions of the generality or of any that are sincere As a man that hath lived in the East or West Indies is 〈◊〉 to discourse of the places and people which he hath seen and perhaps another by a Map or historie may say somewhat of the same subject though less distinctly and sensibly but others can say nothing of it so a man of holy experience in the mysteries of sanctification that is much conversant at home and acquainted with his own heart is able if other helps concur to speak what he feels to God and man and from his particular observation and experience to frame his prayers and spiritual conference and an hypocriâ—â— from Reading and common observation may do something affectedly that 's like it but careless self-neglecting worldlings are usually dumb about such matters and hear you as they do men of another Countrey that talk in a language which they do not understand or at least cannot make them any answer in But if any of you will needs think more basely and maliciously of the cause of holy prayer and conference in believers let us leave them for the present to the Justification of him that gave them the spirit of supplication which you reproach and let us only enquire what is the Reason that men that can discourse as hansomely as others about worldly matters have nothing to say beyond a few cold affected words which they have learnt by rote either to God or man about the matters of the soul the methods of the spirit the workings of a truly penitent heart or the elevations of faith and the pantings of desire after God Why are you dumb when you should speak this language and frequently and delightfully speak it Is it because your Reason is lower then those mens that do speak it whom you despise and that you are naturally near kin to ideots No you are wise enough to do evil You can talk of your trades your honours or employments your acquaintance and correspondencies all the day long You are more wordy about these little things then the Preachers themselves that you count most â—edious are about the greatest You are â—uch longer discoursing of your delusory â—oyes then the Lovers of God whose souls â—ong after him are in those Prayers which trouble you with their length Many a time have I been forced to hear your dreaming incoherent dotage how copious you are in words that signifie no greater matters then flesh pleasing or fancifull honourâ— and accomodations I had almost said theâ—â— chaff or straw or dirt One may heâ—â— you from morning to night from day to day discoursing in variety of company on various subjects with freedom and plausible ingenuity And when all is seâ— together it is but a hodge podge of earth and flesh and windy vanity a frothy puddle Aâ— the ridiculous Orator Magno Conatu hiatu nihil dicitis You strein and gapâ— an hour or a day together to say nothing set all the words of a day together and peruse them at night and see what they are worth There 's little higher then visible materials that I say not then the dunghil or your shadows then meat and drink and play and complement then houses or lands or domineering affections oâ— actions in many hours or days discourse I think of you sometime when I see how ingeniously and busily children do make up their babies of clouts and how seriously they talk about them and how every 〈◊〉 and clout is matter of employment and disâ—ourse and how highly they value them and â—ow many dayes they can unweariedly â—pend about them Pardon my compariâ—on If you repent not of your discourses â—nd imployments more then they and do not one day
a christian and the heartless use of outward ordinances and that good esteeme of others now goe for Godlyness and saving grace The Autumne is at hand when these leaves will all lie in the dirt and will goe for fruit no longer Do you take it now for true Religion to be hot for lust and pride and gain and cold for God and you Salvation and to obey God so far as will stand with your outward prosperity and as the flesh or your other Masters will give leave This is an Opinion that never accompanied any man beyond the grave Do you think to be saved by all that devotion which gives God but the leavings of the flesh and world and by a Religion that gives him but the outer rooms when pleasure and gain are next your hearts and that makes him but an underling to your Covetousness and Ambition Think so if you can when you are gone hence Cannot the Preacher now make the ungodly to know that they are ungodly the unsanctified to know they are but carnal and the Pharisee to know that his Religion is Vain Death can convince the awakened soul of all this in a moment You can choose whether you will believe us but Death will so speak as to be believed You must be Voluntary in knowing your misery now but then you shall know it against your wills You must open the windows or must open your eyes if you will see your selves by the Light which we bring to you But Death irresistibly throws open all To say in pride and obstinacy I will not believe it will now serve turn to quiet your consciences and make you seem as safe as any But when God saith You shall feel it your unbelief is uneffectual It can then torment you but it can no longer ease you There 's then no room for I will not believe it God can without a word perswade you of that which you were resolved you would never be perswaded of This day while you all sit here in the body you are every one affected according as you apprehend your state to be whether it be indeed as you apprehend it or not But when Death hath opened you the door into eternity you will be all affected with your conditions as they are indeed To day you are here quiet because you think your souls are safe and some are troubled that think they are in a state of misery and its like that some on both sides are mistaken and the quiet of one and the disquiet of another may arise for want of the knowledge of your selves But Death will rectifie both these errors and then if you are unsanctified no false opinions no unbelief no confident conceits of your integreity will abate your desperation or give any ease to your tormented minds Nor will there be any doubts or fears or despairing self-afflicting thoughts to disquiet those that Christ hath justified or a bate their Joyes O how many thousands will then think much otherwise of themselves then they now do Death turns you out of the company of flatterers and calls you out of the world of error where men laugh and cry in their sleep and bringeth you among awakened souls where all things are called by their proper names and all men are taken by themselves to be as they are indeed Serious Religion is not there a derision nor Loving and seeking and serving God with all the heart and soul and might is not there taken for unnecessary preciseness Holiness is not there called humour or Hypocrisie Nor is the Pharisaical Ceremonious Hypocrite taken for a man of the most prudent safe and moderate Religion God judgeth not as man by outward appearances but with righteous judgement that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God Luke 16.15 And he will make you then to judge of your selves as he hath judged you Though Wisdom now be Justified but of her children it shall then be Justified by all Not by a sanctifying but a constrained involuntary tormenting light And though now men can believe as well of themselves as self-self-love and the quieting of their consciences doth require yet then they will have lost this mastery over their own conceits O therefore beloved Hearers seeing you are all going into an unresistibly convincing Light and are almost in that world where all must fully know themselves Seeing nothing is covered that shall not be revealed nor hid that shall not be made known Mat. 10.26 and no unsanctified Hypocrite doth flatter himself into such high presumption but a dying hour will take him down and turn it all into endless desperation if true Conversion prevent it not I beseech you be more conversant with Conscience then you have been Be ashamed that a wanton sot that knoweth nothing better then flesh to adorn and to be carefull of should bestow more hours in looking into the Glass then you bestow to look into Gods Word and your own Hearts yea more in a year then you have thus bestowed in all your lives O that you knew what a profitable companion Conscience is for you to converse with You would not then think your selves so solitary as to be destitute of company and employment while you have so much to do at home and one in your bosome that you have so much business with And it is a necessary and inseparable companion If the wise of your bosome should be a shrew you must not therefore be a stranger to her because of nearness necessity and business If Conscience should give you some foul words and chide you when you had rather be flattered yet there is no running from it for more pleasant company Home is homely It s there that you must dwell Conscience is married to you Please it on safe terms as well as you can but do not think to overrun it For it will follow you or you must return to it home again when you have gone yout furthest and done you worst You have taken Conscience for better and for worse There is no expectation of a divorce no not by Death It will follow you to Eternity And therefore O be not strange to Conscience that will be your Comforter or Tormenter at the hour of death that can do so much to make sickness and all suffering light or grievous and to make death welcome or terrible to you Fly not from conscience that must dwell with you for ever O foolish sinners do you want company and business to pass away your time Are you fain to go to Cards or Dice to waste this treasure which is more precious then your money Do you go to an Ale-house a Play-house or other such Pest house to seek for company and pastime I say not to Bedlam for that 's as much more honourable then your sinfull society as the place that cureth or restraineth the mad is better then that which makes them mad Do you forget what company and business you have at
home As you love your peace and happiness instead of conversing with vain lascivious or ungodly persons O spend that time in converse with your Consciences You may there have a thousand times more profitable discourse Be not offended to give Conscience a sober faithfull answer if it ask you What you have done with all your Time and how you have lived in the world and how you have obeyed the calls of grace and how you have entertained Christ into your hearts and whether you have obeyed him or his enemy and whether you have been led by the spirit or the flesh and what forwardness the work of your salvation is in for which you came into the world and what assurance you have of your Justification and Salvation and what readiness to die Think it not presumption in Conscience thus to examine you Though you have perhaps unthankfully disdained to be thus examined by your Pastors your external Guides whose office it is to help you and watch for your souls yet do not disdain to be accountable to your selves Accountable you must be ere long to God And that friend that would help you to make ready such accounts on which so great a weight dependeth me thinks should be welcomed with a thousand thanks Ministers and Conscience should be acceptable to you that come on so necessary a work The chidings of Conscience are more friendly language then the flattery of your ignorant or proud associates and should be more gratefull to you then the laughter of fools which is like the crackling of thorns in the fire Eccles 7.6 Thy own home though it be a house of mourning is better for thee then such a sinfull house of mirth Hear but what Conscience hath to say to you No one will speak with you that hath words to speak which nearlyer concern you I beseech you Sirs be more frequent and familiar with Conscience then most men are Think not the time lost when you walk and talk with it alone Confer with it about your endless state and where you are like to be for ever and what way you are in and what thoughts you will have of your sins and duties of the world and God of yielding or overcoming at the last Is there no sense in this discourse Thou art dead and senseless if thou think so Is idle talk and prating better I hope you are not so distracted as to say so If you have not blinded deceived or bribed it I tell you Conscience hath other kind of discourse for you more excellent and necessary things to talk of then wantons or worldlings or pot-companions have It s better be giving Conscience an account what business thou hast had so often in such company and how thou wouldst have lookt if death had found thee there then without leave from from God or Conscience to go thither again The thriving way is neither to be still at home nor still abroad but to be at home when homework is to be done and to be abroad only for doing and for getting good in a way of diligent Christian trading and to bring that home that is got abroad but never to go abroad upon loytering vain expensive occasions When you have done with Conscience converse with others that your business lieth with and go abroad when it s for your Masters work but go not upon idle errands converse not with prodigal Wasters of your time and enemies to your souls One time or other Conscience will speak and have a hearing the sooner the better Put it not off to a time so unseasonable as Death I say not unseasonable for Conscience to speak in but unseasonable for it to begin to speak in and unseasonable for those terrible words that need a calmer time for answer and unseasonable for so many things and so great as self-betrayers use to put off untill then which need a longer time for due consideration and dispatch 3. And I beseech you consider with what amazing horror it must needs surprise you to find ox a sudden and unexpeâ—â—edly when you die that all is worse with â—ou then you imagined or would believe After a whole life of confident presumptiâ—n to be suddenly convinced by so dreadâ—ull an experience of your so long and wilfull a mistake To find in a moment that you have flattered your souls into so desperate a state of woe To see and feel all the selfish cavils and reasonings confuted in one hour which the wisest and holiest men on earth could never beat you from before O Sirs you know not now what a day what a conviction that will be You know not what it is for a guilty soul to to pass out of the Body and find it self in the plague of an unsanctified state and hated of the Holy God that never would know it till it was too late You know not what it is to be turned by Death into that world of spirits where all self-deceit is detected by experience and all must undergo a righteous judgement where blindness and self-self-love can no more perswade the miserable that they are happy the unholy that they are sanctified the fleshly minded men that they are spiritual the lovers of the world that they are the Lovers of God Men cannot there believe what they list nor take that for a truth which makes for their security be it never so false Men cannot there believe that they are accepted of God while they are in the bonds of their iniquity or that their hearts are as good as the best while their tongues and lives are opposite to goodness or that they shall be saved as soon as the godly though they be ungodly It s easie for a man to hear of waves and gulfs and shipwrack that never saw the Sea and without any fear to hear of battels that never saw the face of an enemy and without any trouble to hear of sickness and tormenting pains and burning and cutting off of limbs that never felt or saw such things It s easie for you here in these seats in the midst of health and peace and quietness to hear of a departing soul and where it shall appear and what it shall there see and how great a discovery Death will make But O Sirs when this must be your case as you know it must be alas how speedily these matters then will seem considerable They will be new and strange to those that have heard of them an hundred times because they never heard of them sensibly till now One of those souls that have been here before you and have past that way into eternity have other thoughts of these things than you have O how do â—â—ey think now of the fearless slumber â—nd stupidity of those that they have â—eft behind What think they now of those â—hat wilfully fly the light and flatter themâ—elves in guilt and misery and make light of all the Joyes and torments of the other world Even as the damned Rich man in
not perfect We know we 〈◊〉 be more humbled and more believing anâ— more watchfull and Love God more anâ— feare and trust him more and be moâ—â— fruitfull and diligent and obedient anâ— zealous and yet we are not What we 〈◊〉 we should be in any of these In these 〈◊〉 all live in sin against knowledge els 〈◊〉 should be all as good as we know we ougâ—â— to be which no man is And if throâ—â—â— temptation any of us should be ready 〈◊〉 despaire because of any of these infirmity 〈◊〉 because we cannot Repent or Love God watch or Pray or Obey more perfectly or as we should yet Grace ceaseth not 〈◊〉 be Grace though in the least degree becaâ—â—â— we are ready to despair for want of 〈◊〉 Nor will the sincerity of this spark 〈◊〉 graine of Mustard seed be unsuccesâ—â—◠〈◊〉 to our salvation because we think so and â—ake ourselves to be unsincere and our sanctiâ—â—cation to be none Nor yet because we â—annot be as obedient and good as we â—now we should be For the Gospell saith â—ot He that knoweth he hath faith or sinâ—â—rity shall be saved and he that knoweth 〈◊〉 not shall be damned or he that is lesse â—â—ly or obedient then his conscence tells him he â—hould be shall be damned But he that Beâ—ieveth and Repenteth shall be saved whether â—e know it to be done in sincerity or no â—nd he that doth not shall be damned though â—e never so confidently think he doth So that in the Degrees of Holynes and obedience all Christians ordinarly sin against knowledge 2. And besides what is ordinary some extraordinarily in the time of a Powerfull temptation go further then ordinarily they do And some under dull Flegmatick melancholy or cholerick diseases or distempers of body or under a diseased violent appetite may transgress more against their knowledge then otherwise they would do when the spirits are flatted the thoughts confused the reason weakened the passion strengthned and the executive faculties undisposed so that their actions are but imperfectly Humane or Morall imperfectly capable of vertue or vice good or evill it is no wonder here if pooâ— soules not only perceive their sin but thinâ— it and the danger to be tenfold greatâ—â— then they are and yet go on againâ—â— their knowledge and yet have 〈◊〉 grace This much I have said both to stay yoâ— from misunderstanding what I said before concerning the Power of conviction 〈◊〉 conversion for few Auditoryes waâ—â— hearers that will be still excepting if Caâ—â—tion stop not every hole and also to 〈◊〉 you to the fuller understanding of the â—â—â—â—ter its self of which I treat But exceptiâ—â—â—â—mat regulam in non exceptis Exceptioâ— strengthen and not weaken any Rule 〈◊〉 proposition in the points not exceptâ—â— Still I say that out of these cases the 〈◊〉 knowledge of a sinfull miserable state 〈◊〉 so great a helpe to bring us out of it 〈◊〉 it s hardly imaginable how rationall meâ—â— can willfully continue in a state of suâ—â— exceeding danger if they be but well acâ—quainted that they are in it I know a Harâ—â—ned heart hath an unreasonable obstinâ—â—â— opposition against the meanes of its 〈◊〉 recovery But yet men have some use 〈◊〉 Reason and self preserving Love and care â—r they are not men and if they be not 〈◊〉 they cannot be sinfull men And â—hough little transient lightnings oft come â—o nothing but leave some men in greaâ—er darkness yet could we but set up a â—â—anding Light in all your consciences could we fully convince and resolve the unregeâ—ate that they cannot be saved in the carnall state and way that they are in but must be sanctifyed or never saved what hopes should we have that all the subtiltyes â—nd snares of Satan and all the pleasures and gaine of sin and all the allurements of ungodly company could no longer hinder you from falling down at the feet of mercy and begging forgiveness through the blood of Christ and giving up yourselves in Covenant to the Lord and speedily and resolutely betaking yourselves to an holy life Could I but make you throughly known unto your selves I should hope that all the unsanctified that hear me would date their Conversion from this very day and that you would not delay till the next morning to bewail your sin and misery and fly to Christ lest you should die and be past hope this night And doth so much of our work and of your recovery lie upon this point and yet shall we not be able to acâ—complish it Might you be broughâ— into the way to Heaven if we could bâ— perswade you that you are yet out of tâ—â— way and will you be undone because yoâ— will not suffer so small and reasonable part of the cure as this is O God forbid O that we knew how to illuminate yoâ—â— minds so far as to make you find that yoâ— are lost How ready would Christ be theâ— to find you and to receive and welcome you upon your return Here is the first difficulty which if we could but overcome 〈◊〉 should hope to conquer all the rest Hâ—â— we but a wedge to cleave this knot the rest would the more easily be done Coulâ— we draw but this one pin of self-deceit the frame of Satans building were like to tumble down O that any of you that know the nature of self-deceit and know the accesses to the inwards of a sinner and know the fallacious reasonings of the heart could tell us but how we might undeceive them O that any of you that know the nature of humane understanding with its several maladies and their cure and know the power of saving truth could tell us what key will undo this lock what medicine will cure this disease of wilfull obstinate self-deceiving Think but on the case of our poor people and of ours and sure you cannot choose but pitty both them and us We are all professors of the Christian faith and all say we believe the word of God This word assureth us that all men are fallen in Adam and are by nature children of wrath and increase in sin and misery till supernatural grace recover them It tells us that the Redeemer is become by office the Physition or Saviour of souls washing away their guilt by his blood and renewing and cleansing their corrupted natures by his Spirit It tell us that he will freely work the cure for all that will take him for their Physicion and will forgive and save them that penitently fly to him and value and accept and trust upon his grace And that except they be thus made new creatures all the world cannot save them from everlasting wrath This is the Doctrine that we all believe or say we do believe Thus doth it open the case of sinners We come now according to our office and the trust reposed in us and we tell our Hearers what the Scripture saith of man and what it commandeth us to tell them We tell them of their
they may give light to all that are in the house ver 15. What would you do with Teachers but to Teach you And what should they make known to you if not your selves Shall not the Physicion have leave to tell you of your diseases Verily Sirs a sinner under the curse of the Law unsanctified and unpardoned is not in a state to be jeasted and dallied with unless you can play in the flames of Hell It s plain dealing that he needs A quibbling â—oyish flashy Sermon is not the proper medicine for a lethargick miserable soul nor fit to Break a stony Heart nor to bind up a Heart that 's kindly broken Heaven and Hell should not be talkt of in a canting juggling or pedanick strain A Seneca can tell you that its a Physicion that is skilfull and not one that 's eloquent that we need If he have also fine and neat expressions we will not despise them nor overmuch value them urendum secandum It s a cure that we need and the means are best be they never so sharp that will accomplish it Serious reverent Gravity best suiteth with matters of such incomprehensible concernment You set not a School-bâ—y to make an Oration to give an assaulted City an allarm or to call men out to quench a common fire You may play with words when the case will bear it But as dropping of beads is too ludicrous for one that is praying to be saved from the flames of Hell so a sleepy or a histrionical starched speech is too light and unlikely a means to call back a sinner that is posting to perdition and must be humbled and renewed by the spirit or be for ever damned This is your case Sirs And do you think the playing of a part upon a stage doth fit your case O no! so great a business requireth all the serious earnestness in the speaker that he can use I am sure you will think so ere long your selves And you will then think well of the Preachers that faithfully acquainted you with your case and if they succeed to your perdition you will curse those that smoothed you up in your presumption and hid your danger by false doctrine or misapplication or seeming to discover it indeed did hide it by an hypocritical light not serious mention of it God can make use of clay and spittle to open the eyes of men born blind and of Rams-horns to bring down the walls of Jericho But usually he fitteth the means unto the end and works on man agreeably to his Nature And therefore if a blind understanding must be enlightned you cannot expect that it should be done by Squibs and Glowworms but by bringing into your souls the powerfull celestial truth which shall shew you the hidden corners of your hearts and the hidden mysteries of the Gospel and the unseen things of the other world If a hardened heart be to be broken it is not stroaking but striking that must do it It is not the sounding Brass the tinkling Cymbal the carnal mind puft up with superficial knowledge that is the instrument fitted to the renewing of mens souls But it is he that can acquaint you with what he himself hath been savingly acquainted The heart is not melted into Godly sorrow nor raised to the life of Faith and Love by the bubbles of a frothy wit or by a game at words or useless notions but by the illuminating beams of Sacred Truth and the attraction of Divine displayed Goodness communicated from a mind that by faith hath seen the Glory of God and by experience found that he is Good and that liveth in the Love of God such a one is fitted to assist you first in the knowledge of your selves and then in the knowledge of God in Christ Did you consider what is the office of the Ministry you would soon know what Ministers do most faithfully perform their office and what kind of Teaching and oversight you should desire And then you would be reconciled to the Light and would choose the Teacher could you have your choice that would do most to help you to know your selves and know the Lord. I beseech you judge of our work by our Commission and judge of it by your own Necessities Have you more need to be acquainted with your sin and danger or to be pleased wich a set of hansome words which when they are said do leave you as they found you and leave no Light and Life and heavenly Love upon your hearts that have no substance that you can feed upon in the review And what our Commission is you may find in many places of the Scripture Ezek. 3.18 19 20 21. When I say unto the Wicked Thou shalt surely die and thou givest him not warning nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thy hand Yet if thou warn the wicked and he turn not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way he shall die in his iniquity but thou hast delivered thy soul And If thou warn the righteous man that the righteous sin not and he doth not sin he shall surely live because he is warned also thou hast delivered thy soul And what if they distaste our doctrine must we forbear Verse 11. Tell them thus saith the Lord God whether they will hear or whether they will forbear So Ezek. 33.1 to 10. You know what came of Jonah for refusing to deliver Gods threatenings against Nineve Christs stewards must give to each his portion He himself threatneth damnation to the impenitent the Hypocrites and unbelievers Luke 13.3.5 Mark 16.16 Mat. 24.51 Paul saith of himself If I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1.10 Patience and meekness is commanded to the Ministers of Christ even in the instructing of opposers But to what end but that they may escape out of the snare of Devil who are taken captive by him at his will So that with all our meekness we must be so plain with you as to make you know that you are Satans captives taken alive by him in his snares till God by giving you Repentance shall recover you 2 Tim. 2.25 26. The very effice of the Preachers sent by Christ was to open mens eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance with the sanctified by faith in Christ Acts 26.18 which telleth you that we must let men understand that till they are converted and sanctified they are blind and in the dark and in the power of Satan far from God unpardoned and having no part in the inheritance of Saints Christ tells the Pharisees that they were of their Father the Devil when they boasted that God was their Father John 8.44 And how plainly he tels them of their hypocrisie and asketh them how they can escape the
And I hope you will confess that you cannot be pardoned and saved without a Saviour and therefore that as you need a Saviour so you must have a special interest in him It is as certain that Christ saveth not at all as that he saveth any For thâ— same word assureth us of the one and 〈◊〉 the other Quest 2. But if you confess that once you were children of wrath my next Question is Whether you know how and wheâ— you were delivered from so sad a state or at least Whether it be done or not Perhapâ— you 'le say It was done in your Baptism which washeth away Original sin But granting you that all that have a Promise of pardon before have that promise sealed and that pardon delivered them by Baptism I ask you Quest 3. Do you think that Baptism by water only will save unless you be also baptized by the spirit Christ telleth you the contrary with a vehement asseveration John 3.5 Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God And Peter tels you that it is not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God 1 Pet. 2.21 If therefore you have not the spirit of Christ for all your Baptism you are none of his Rom. 8.9 For that which is born of the flesh is but flesh and you must be born of the spirit if you will be spiritual John 3.6 I shall further grant you that many receive the spirit of Christ even in their infancy and may be savingly as well as Sacramentally then Regenerate And if this be your case you have very great cause to be thankfull for it But I next enquire of you Quest 4. Have you not lived an unholy carnal life since you came to the use of reason Have you not since then delcared that you did not live the life of faith nor walk after the spirit but the flesh If so then it is certain that you have need of a Conversion from that ungodly state what ever Baptism did for you And therefore you are still to enquire whether you have been converred since you came to age And I must needs remember you that your Infant Covenant made in Baptism being upon your parents faith and consent and noâ— your own will serve your turn no longer then your Infancy unless when you come to the use of Reason you renew and own that Covenant your selves and have a personal faith and Repentance of your own And whatever you received in Baptism this must be our next enquiry Quest 5. Did you ever since you came to age upon sound Repentance and renunciation of the flesh the world and the devil give up your selves unfeignedly by faith to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and shew by the performance of this holy Coâ—venant that you were sincere in the making of it I confess it is a matter so hard to most to assign the time and manner of their Conversion that I think it no safe way of trial And therefore I will issue all in this one Question Quest 6. Have you the Necessary parts of the New Creature now though perhaps you know not just when or how it was formed in you The Question is Whether you are now in a state of sanctification and not Whether you can tell just when you did receive it He that would know Whether he be a Man must not do it by remembring when he was born or how he was formed but by discerning the Rational nature in himself at present And though Grace be more observable to us in its enterance then Nature as finding and entering into â— discerning subject which Nature doth not Yet it beginneth so early with some and so obscurely with others and in others the preparations are so long or notable that its hard to say when special grace came in But you may well discern Whether it be there or not and that is the Question that must be resolved if you would know your selves And though I have been long in these exhortations to incline your Wils I shall be short in giving you those Evidences of the Holy Life which must be before your eyes while you are upon the trial In summ If your very hearts do now unfeignedly consent to the Covenant which you made in Baptism and your Lives express it to be a true Consent I dare say you are regenerate though you know not just when you first consented Come on then and let us enquire what you say to the several parts of your Baptismal Covenant 1. If you are sincere in the Covenant you have made with Christ You do resolvedly Consent that God shall be your only God as reconciled to you by Jesus Christ Which is 1. That you will take him for your Owner or your Absolute Lord and give up your selves to him as his Own 2. That You will take him for your Supream Governour and Consent to be subject to his Government and Laws taking his Wisdom for your Guide and his Will for the Rule of your Wills and Lives 3. That you will take him for your chiefest Benefactor from whom you receive and expect all your Happiness and to whom you owe your selves and all by way of Thankfulness And that you take his Love and favour for your Happiness it self and prefer the Everlasting Enjoyment of his Glorious sight and Love in Heaven before all the sensual pleasures of the world I would prove the necessity of all these by Scripture as we go but that it is evident in it self these three Relations being Essential to God as our God in Covenant He is not our God if not our Owner Ruler and Benefactor You profess all this when you profess but to Love God or take him for your God 2. In the Covenant of Baptism you do profess to believe in Christ and take him for your only Saviour If you do this in sincerity 1. You do unfeignedly Beleive the doctrine of his Gospel and the Articles of the Christian faith concerning his Person his Offices and his suffering and works 2. You do take him unfeignedly for the only Redeemer and Saviour of mankind and Give up your selves to be saved by his Merits Righteousness Intercession c. as he hath promised in his word 3. You trust upon him and his promises for the attainment of your Reconciliation and Peace with God your Justification Adoption Sanctification and the Glory of the life to come 4. You take him for your Lord and King your Owner and Ruler by the right of Redemption and your grand Benefactor that hath obliged you to Love and Gratitude by saving you from the wrath to come and purchasing eternal Glory for you by his most wonderfull condescension life and sufferings 3. In the Baptismal Covenant you are engaged to the Holy Ghost If you are sincere in this branch of your Covenant 1. You discern your sins as
and built your hopes upon his promises and can with a cheerfull contempt let go the world for the accomplishment of your hopes remember yet that there is a secret root of unbelief remaining in you and that this odious sin is but imperfectly mortified in the best and that its more then possible that you may see the day when the tempter will assault you with questionings of the word of God and trouble you with the injections of blasphemous thoughts and doubts whether it be true or not and that you that have thought of God of Christ of Heaven of the Immortal state of souls with joy and satisfied confidence may be in the dark about them affrighted with ugly suggestions of the enemy and may think of them all with troublesome distracting doubts and be forced to cry with the Disciples Luke 17.5 Lord increase our faith And as he Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Yea worse then so some upright souls have been so amazed and distracted by the Tempter and their distempered hearts as to think they do not believe at all nor yet are able sincerely to say Lord help thou my unbelief When yet at that time their Fears and their abstaining from iniquity shew that they Believe the Threatnings and therefore indeed believe the word Now if we did but throughly know our selves when faith is in its exercise and strength and consider whither the secret seeds of remaining unbelief may bring us being fore-warned we should be fore-armed and should fortifie our faith the better and be provided against these sad assaults And if the malignant spirit be suffered to storm this fortress of the soul we should more manfully resist and we should not be overwelmed with horror as soon as any hideous and blasphemous temptations do assault us when Christ himself was not exempted from the most blasphemous temptation even the worshipping of the Devil instead of God though in him there was no sinfull disposition to entertain it Mat. 4.9.10 John 14.30 O watch and pray Christians in your most prosperous and comfortable state Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation For you little think what is yet within you and what advantage the deceiver hath and how much of your own to take his part and how low he may bring you both in point of Grace and Peace though he cannot damn you I am troubled that I must tell you of so sad a case that even the children of God may fall into lest by troubling you with the opening of your danger I should do any thing to bring you into it But because self-ignorance and not being before hand acquainted with it may do much more I have timely shewed you the danger with the remedy 5. Another instance of the darkness even of a Heart that in part is sanctified is in the successes of the temptations of Adversity When we want nothing we think we value not the world and we could bear the loss of all But when poverty or danger comes what trouble and unseemly whining is there as if it were by a worldling that is deprived of his Idol and all the portion that ever he must have And by the shamefull moan and stir that we make for what we want we shew more sinfull overvaluing of it and love to it then before we observed or would believe O how confidently and piously have I heard some inveigh against the Love of the world as if there had been no such thing in them who yet have been so basely dejected when they have been unexpectedly stript of their estates as if they had been quite undone How patiently do we think we could bear affliction till we feel it And how easily and piously can we exhort others unto patience when we have no sense of what they suffer But when our turn is come alas we seem to be other men Suffering is now another thing and Patience harder then we imagined And how inclinable are we to hearken to temptations to use sinfull means to come out of our sufferings Who would have thought that faithfull Abraham should have been so unbelieving as to equivocate in such a danger and expose the chastity of his wife to hazzard as we read in Gen. 12.12 13 19. And that he should fall into the same sin again on the same occasion Gen. 20. to Abimelech as before he had done with Pharaoh And that Isaac should after him fall into the same sin in the same place Gen. 26.7 The Life oâ— Faith doth set us so much above the fear of man and shew us the weakness and noâ—thingness of mortal worms and the faithâ—fulness and al-sufficiency of God that oâ— would think the frowns and threatnings 〈◊〉 a man should signifie nothing to us whâ—â— God stands by and giveth us such ampâ—â— promises and security for our confirmâ—â—tion and encouragement And yet whâ—â— base dejectedness and sinfull complianceâ— are many brought to through the fear 〈◊〉 man that before the hour of this tempâ—tation could talk as couragiously as any This was the case of Peter before mentioned and of many a one that hath woundeâ— conscience and wronged their profession by too cowardly a disposition which if it were fore-known we might do more for our confirmation and should betake our selves in time to Christ in the use of means for strength Few turn their backs on Christ or a good cause in time of tryal that are jealous of themselves before hand and afraid lest they should forsake him Few fall that are afraid of falling But the self-ignorant and self-confident are careless of their way and it is they that fall 6. Another instance that I may give you 〈◊〉 in the unexpected appearances of Pride 〈◊〉 those that yet are truly humble Huâ—ility speaks in their confessions aggravaâ—â—ng their sin and searching heart and life â—r matter of self-accusation They call â—hemselves Less then the least of all Gods â—â—ercies They are ready with the woman of Canaan Mat. 15.27 even to own the name â—f dogs and to confess themselves unworthy â—f the childrens crums and unworthy to â—read upon the common earth or to â—reath in the air or to live upon the patiâ—nce and provisions of God They will â—pend whole hours and dayes of humiliaâ—ion in confessing their sin and bewailâ—ng their weaknesses and want of grace â—nd lamenting their desert of misery They â—re oft cast down so much too low that they dare not own the title of Gods children nor any of his special grace but take themselves for meer unsanctified hardened sinners and all that can be said will not convince them that they have any saving interest in Christ nor hinder them from pouring out unjust accusations against themselves And all this is done by them in the uprightness of their hearts and not dissemblingly And yet would you think that with all this Humility there should be any pride and that the same person should lift up themselves and resist theâ— helps to further
filled is an insufficient evidence of the life of grace and will do as little for the soul of the giver as for the Body of the receiver And how little hazardous or costly Love is found among us either to enemies neighbours or to Saints Did we better know our hearts there would be more care and diligence used to bring them to effectual fervent Love then to those duties that are of less importance and we should learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Mat. 9.13 12.7 which Christ sets the Pharisees twice to learn More instances of greatest duties extenuated I might add but I proceed 8. Another instance of unobserved corruption of the heart is The frequent and secret insinuations of selfishness in all that we do toward God or man When we think we are serving God alone and have cleansed our hearts from mixtures and deceit before we are aware self-interest or self-esteem or self conceit or self-self-love or self-will or self-seeking do secretly creep in and marr the work We think we are studying and preaching and writing purely for God and the common good or the benefit of souls and perhaps little observe how subtilly selfishness insinuates and makes a party and byasseth us from the holy ends and the simplicity and sincerity which we thought we had carefully maintained so that we are studying and preaching and writing for our selves when we take no notice of it When we enter upon any office or desire preferment or riches or honour in the world we think we do it purely for God to furnish us for his service and little think how much of selfishness is in our desires When we are doing Justice or shewing mercy in giving alms or exhorting the ungodly to repent or doing any other work of Piety or Charity we little think how much of selfishness is secretly latent in the bent and intention of the heart When we think we are defending the truth and cause of God by disputing writing or by the sword or when we think we are faithfully maintaining on one side order and obedience against confusion and turbulent disquiet spirits or the Vnity of the Church against division or on the other hand that we are sincerely opposing Pharisaicall corruptions and hypocrisie and tyrannie and persecution and are defending the purity of Divine worship and the power and spirituality of religion in all these cases we little know how much of carnal self may be secretly unobserved in the work But above all others Christ himself and the Holy Ghost that searcheth the hidden things of the heart hath warned one sort to be suspicious of their hearts and that is those that cannot bear the dissent and infirmities of their brethren in tolerable things and those that are calling for fire from heaven and are all for force and cruelty in religion for vexing imprisoning banishing burning hanging or otherwise doing as they would not be done by proportionably in their own case He tells his two Disciples in such a case Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of Luke 9.55 As if he should say You think you purely seek my honour in the revenge of this contempt and opposition of unbelievers and you think it would much redound to the propagation of the faith and therefore you think that all this zeal is purely from my spirit But you little know how much of â— proud a carnal selfish spirit is in these desires You would fain have me and your selves with me to be openly vindicated by fire from heaven and be so owned by Goâ— that all men may admire you and you may exercise a dominion in the world and you stick not at the sufferings and ruine of these sinners so you may attain your end but 〈◊〉 tell you this selfish cruel spirit is unlike my spirit which inclineth to patience forâ—bearance and compassion So Rom. 14.1 2 c. 15.1 2. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye who art thou that judgest another mans servant Why dost thou judge thy brother and why dost thou set at nought thy brother We shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ Every one of us shall give account of himself to God We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification So Gal. 6.1 2. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Bear ye one anothers burden and so fulfill the Law of Christ So also men are fouly and frequently mistaken when they are zealously contending against their faithfull Pastors and their brethren and vilifying others and quenching love and troubling the Church upon pretence of greater knowledge or integrity in themselves which is notably discovered and vehemently prest by the Apostle James 3.1 c. where you may see how greatly the judgement of the spirit of God concerning our hearts doth differ from mens judgement of themselves They that had a masterly contentious envious zeal did think they were of the wiser sort of Christians and of the highest form in the School of Christ when yet the Holy Ghost telleth them that their wisdom descended not from above but was earthly sensual and divelish and that their envy and strife doth bring confusion and every evil work and that the wisdom from above is neither unholy nor contentious but first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated Jam. 3.17 You see then how oft and dangerously we are deceived by unacquaintedness with our selves and how selfish carnal principles ends and motives are oft mixed in the actions which we think are the most excellent for wisdom zeal and piety that ever we did perform O therefore what cause have we to study and search and watch such hearts and not too boldly or carelesly to trust them And it is not only Hypocrites that are subject to these deceitfull sins who have them in dominion but true Believers that have a remnant of this carnal selfish principle continually offering to insinuate and corrupt their most excellent works and even all that they do 9. The strong eruption of those passions that seemed to be quite mortified doth shew that there is more evil lurking in the heart then ordinarily doth appear How calmly do we converse together how mildly do we speak till some provoking word or wrong do blow the coals and then the dove appeareth to partake of a fiercer nature and we can perceive that in the flame which we perceived not in the spark When a provocation can bring forth censorious reviling scornfull words it shews what before was latent in the heart 10. We are very apt to think those affections to be purely spiritual which in the issue appear to be mixed with carnality Our very love to the Assemblies and ordinances of
take ye thought for rayment If God so clothe the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more clothe you O ye of little faith So in Mat. 16.7 8. The seed that Christ likeneth his kingdom to Mat. 13.31 hath life while it is buried in the earth and is visible while a little seed but is not so observed as when it cometh to be as a tree Though God despise not the day of little things Zech. 4.10 and though he will not break the bruised reed or quench the smoaking flax Isa 42.3 yet our selves or others cannot discern and value these obscure beginnings as God doth But because we cannot easily find a little faith and a little Love when we are looking for it we take the non-appearance for a non-existence and call it none 3. Sanctification is oft unknown to those that have it because they do not try and judge themselves by sure infallible Marks the Essentials of the new man but by uncertain qualifications that are mutable and belong but to the beauty and activity of the soul The Essence of Holiness as denominated from the object is the Consent to the three Articles of the Covenant of Grace 1. That we give up our selves to God as our God and Reconciled Father in Jesus Christ 2. That we give up our selves to Jesus Christ as our Redeemer and Saviour to recover us reconcile us and bring us unto God 3. That we give up our selves to the Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier to guide and illuminate us and perfect the Image of God upon us and prepare us for Glory The Essence of Sanctification as denominated from its opposite objects is nothing but our Renunciation and Rejection of the flesh the World and the Devil of Pleasures Profits and Honours as they would be preferred before God and draw us to forsake him The Essence of Sanctification as denominated from our Faculties which are the subject of it is nothing but this preferring of God and Grace and Glory above the said Pleasures Profits and Honours 1. By the Estimation of our Vnderstandings 2. By the Resolved habituate Choice of our Wills 3. And in the bent and drift of our Endeavours in our Conversations In these three Acts as upon the first three objects and against the other three objects lyeth all that is Essential to Sanctification and that we should judge of our sincerity and title to salvation by as I before shewed But besides these there are many desireable qualities and gifts which we may seek for and be thankfull for but are not Essential to our Sanctification Such are 1. The knowledge of other Truths besides the Essentials of Faith and duty and the soundness of judgement and freedom from error in these lesser points 2. A strong memory to carry away the things that we read and hear 3. A right order of our Thoughts when we can keep them from Confusion roving and distraction 4. Freedom from too strong affections about the creatures and from disturbing passions 5. Lively Affections and feeling operations of the soul towards God in holy duty and tender meltingt of the heart for sin which are very desireable but depend so much on the temperature of the body and outward accidents and are but the vigor and â—ot the Life and being of the new creature that we must not judge of our sincerity by them Some Christians scarce know what any such lively feelings are and some have them very seldom and I think no one constantly and therefore if our Peace or Judgement of our selves be laid on these we shall be still wavering and unsetled and tost up and down as the waves of the sea Sometimes seeming to be almost in Heaven and presently near the gates of Hell When our state doth not change at all as these feelings and Affectionate motions of the soul do but we are still in our safe Relation to God while our first Essential graces do continue though our failings dulness weaknesses and wants must be matter of moderate filial humiliation to us 6. The same must be said of all common Gifts of utterance in conference or prayer and of quickness of understanding and such like 7. Lastly the same must be said also of all that rectitude of life and those degrees of obedience that are above meer sincerity in which one true Christian doth exceed another and in which we should all desire to abound but must not judge our selves to be unsanctified meerly because we are imperfect or to be unjustified sinners meerly because we are sinners In our judging of our selves by our Lives and Practices two extreams must be carefully avoided On the left hand that of the Prophane and of the Antinomians The former cannot distinguish between sinners and sinners sanctified and unsanctified Justified and unjustified sinners and when they have once conceited that they are in the favour of God whatever they do they say we are but sinners and so are the best The latter teach men that when once they are justified they are not for any sins to doubt again of their Justified state lest they should seem to make God changeable On the other hand must be avoided this extream of perplexed doubting Christians that make all their sins or too many of them to be matter of doubting which should be but matter of humiliation I know it is a very great difficulty that hath long perplexed the Doctors of the Church to define what sins are consistent and what inconsistent with a state of Holiness and Salvation which if any distinguish by the names of Mortal and Venial taking the words in no other sense I shall not quarrell with them At the present I shall say but this for the resolving of this great and weighty question 1. It is not the bare Act of sin in it self considered that must determine the case but the Act compared with the Life of Grace and with true Repentance Whoever hath the Love of God and Life of Grace is in a state of Salvation And therefore whatever sin consisteth with the fore-described Essentials of Sanctification viz. The Habituall devotion of the soul to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and the Habitual renunciation of the Flesh ehe World and Devil consisteth with a state of life And true Repentance proveth the pardon of all sin And therefore whatever sin consisteth with Habitual Repentance which is the Hatred of sin as sin and hath Actual Repentance when it is observed and there is time of deliberation consisteth with a state of Grace Now in Habitual Conversion or Repentance the Habitual Willingness to leave our sins must be more then our sinfull Habitual Willingness to keep it Now you may by this much discern as to particular acts whether they are consistent with Habitual hatred of sin For some sins are so much in the power of the will that he that hath an Habitual hatred of them cannot frequently commit them
should move you to seek to be acquainteâ— with it where it is 1. The knowledge of God is the most exceâ—â—lent knowledge and therefore the best sorâ— of creature knowledge is that which hath the most of God in it And undoubtedly theâ—â— is more of God in Holiness which is his Image then in common things Sins and 〈◊〉 have nothing of God in them They must be fathered on the Devil and your selves Anâ— therefore the knowledge of them is gooâ— but by Accident because the knowledgâ— even of evil hath a tendency to good Anâ— therefore it is commanded and made ouâ— duty for the good which it tendeth to It is the Divine nature and Image within you which hath the most of God and therefore â—o know this is the high and noble knowâ—edge To know Christ within us is our â—appiness on earth in order to the knowâ—edge of him in Glory face to face which is â—he happiness of heaven To know God â—hough darkly through a glass and but in â—art 1 Cor. 13.12 is far above all creaâ—ure knowledge The knowledge of him â—aiseth quickneth sanctifieth enlargeth â—nd advanceth all our faculties It is life â—ternal to know God in Christ John 17.3 Therefore where God appeareth most there â—hould our understandings be most diâ—igently exercised in study and observaâ—ion 2. It is a most delightfull felicitating knowledge to know that Christ is in you â—f it be delightfull to the Rich to see their wealth their houses and lands and goods â—nd money and if it be delightfull to the Honourable to see their attendance and hear their own commendations and applause how delightfull must it be to a true Believer to find Christ within him and to know his title to eternal life If the knowledge of full barns and much goods laid up for many years can make a sensual worlding say Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry Luke 12.19 20. Me thinkâ— the knowledge of our interest in Christ anâ— heaven should make us say Thou hast 〈◊〉 gladness in my heart more then in the tiâ—â— that their corn and wine increased that 〈◊〉 more then corn and wine could put inâ—â— theirs Psal 4.7 Return unto thy Rest 〈◊〉 soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully wiâ—â— thee Psal 116.7 If we say with Daviâ— Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praysing thee Psal 84 â— much more may we say Blessed anâ— they in whom Christ dwelleth and the Holâ— Ghost hath made his Temple they should 〈◊〉 still praising thee Blessed is the 〈◊〉 whom thou choosest and causest to approâ—â—â— unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts 〈◊〉 shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy Temple Psal 65.4 But this 〈◊〉 upon supposition that he be first Blessed by Christs approach to him and dwelling in hiâ— If you ask How it is that Christ dwelleâ—â— in us I answer 1. Objectively as he is apâ—prehended by our Faith and Love As thâ— things or persons that we think of and Lovâ— and delight in are said to dwell in our 〈◊〉 or hearts 2. By the Holy Ghost who 〈◊〉 a principle of new and heavenly Life 〈◊〉 given by Christ the Head unto his members and as the Agent of Christ doth illuminate sanctifie and guide the soul He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us 1 Joh. 3.24 That of Eph. 3.17 may be taken in either or both senses comprehensively That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith 3. Did you know that Christ is in you by his spirit it might make every place and condition comfortable to you If you are alone it may rejoyce you to think what company dwelleth continually with you in your hearts If you are wearied with evil company without it may comfort you to think that you have better within when your have communion with the Saints it is your joy to think that you have nearer communion with the Lords of Saints You may well say with David Psal 139.18 when I awake I am still with thee Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at may right hand I shall not be moved 4. Did you know Christ within you it would much help you in believing what is written of him in the Gospel Though to the ungodly the mysteries of the Kingdom of God do seem incredible yet when you have experience of the power of it on your souls and find the Image of it on your hearts and the same Christ within you conforming you to what he commandeth in his word this will work such a sutableness to the Gospel in your hearts as will make the work of faith more easie Saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 4.14 16. We have seen do testifie that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world there 's their outward experience And we have known and believed the Love that God hath to us God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him There is their Faith confirmed by their inward evidence Nâ— wonder if they that have God dwelling 〈◊〉 them by holy love do believe the love 〈◊〉 God hath to them This is the great advantage that the sanctified have in the work 〈◊〉 faith above those that much excell them 〈◊〉 disputing and are furnished with more Arguments for the Christian verity Christ hath his witness abiding in them The fruits of the spirit bear witness to the incorruptible 〈◊〉 the word of God that liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 The impress on the 〈◊〉 heard witness to the seal that caused i◠〈◊〉 it is not a weak uneffectual Argument for the Truth of the Gospel that Believer 〈◊〉 to fetch from within when they plead the effects of it on their souls Labour to know the Truth of your sanctification that you may be confirmed by it in the Truth of the word that sanctifieth you Joh. 17.17 and may rejoice in him that hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth 2 Thes 2.13 5. If you can come to the knowledge of Christ within you it will be much the easier to you to trust upon him and fly to him in all your particular necessities and to make use of his Mediatorship with holy confidence When others flie from Christ with trembling and know not whether he will speak for them or help them or have any regard to them but look at him with strange and doubtful thoughts it will be otherwise with you that have assurance of his continual Love and presence Nearness breedeth familiarity and overcometh strangness Familiarity breedeth confidence and boldness when you find Christ so â—â—er you as to dwell within you and so particular and abundant in his Love to you as to have given you his spirit and all his Graces iâ— will breed
a sweet delightful boldness and make you 〈◊〉 to him as your help and refuge in all your necessities When you find the great promise fulfilled to your selves I will put my Law in their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more you will have boldness to enter into the Holyest by the blood of Jesus by the new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh And having an high Priest over the house of God you may draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having your hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience or the conscience of evil as your bodies are washed in baptism with pure water Heb. 10.16 17 18 19 20 21 22. In Christ we may have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him Eph. 3.12 This intimate acquaintance with our great High Priest that is passed into the Heavens and yet abideth and reigneth in our hearts will encourage us to hold fast our profession and to come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4.14 16. When by unfeigned Love we know that we are of the truth and may assure our hearts before him and our Heart condemneth us not then we have confidence towards God and whatever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight 1 Joh. 3.18 19 20 21 22. 6. When once you know that you have Christ within you you may cheerfully proceed in the way of Life when doubting Christians that know not whether they are in the way or not are still looking behind them and spend their time in perplexed fears lest they are out of the way and go on with heaviness and trouble as uncertain whether they may not lose their labour and are still questioning their groundwork when the building should go on It is an unspeakable mercy when a believing Soul is freed from these distracting hindering doubts and may bodily and cheerfully hold on his way and be walking or working when other men are fearing and enquiring of the way and may with patience and comfort wait for the reward the â—rown of life when others are still questioning whether they were ever regenerate and whether their hopes have any ground We may be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord when we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 We may then gird up the lâ—ins of the mind and in sobriety hope unto the end for the grace that is to be brought us at the Revelation of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.13 7. When you are assured that you have Christ within you it may preserve you from those terrors of soul that affright theâ— that have no such assurance O he thâ—â— knoweth what it is to think of the intolerable wrath of God and says I fear I 〈◊〉 the object of this wrath and must bear thâ—â— intolerable lead everlastingly may knowâ— what a mercy it is to be assured of our escape He that knows what it is to think of Hell and say I know not but those endless flames may be my portion will know what a mercy it is to be assured of deliverance and to be able to say I know I am saved from the wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 And that we are not of them thâ—â— draw back to perdition but of them that believe to â—he saving of the soul Heb. 10.39 And that God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who dyed for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him We may comfort our selves together and edifie one another when we have this assurance 1 Thes 5.9 10 11. They that have felt the burden of a wounded spirit and know what it is to feel the terrors of the Lord and to see Hell fire as it were before their eyes and to be kept waking by the dreadful apprehensions of their danger to be pursued daily by an accusing conscience setting their sins in order before them and bringing the threatnings of God to their remembrance these persons will understand that to be assured of a Christ within us and consequently of a Christ that is preparing a place in glory for us is a mercy that the mind of man is now unable to value according to the ten thousandth part of its worth 8. Were you assured that Christ himself is in you it would sweeten all the mercies of your lives It would assure you that they are all the pledges of his love And love in all would be the Kernel and the Life of all your friends your health your wealth your deliverances would be steeped in the dearest Love of Christ and have a spiritual sweetnss in them when to the worldling they have but a carnal unwholsome luscious sweetness and to the doubting Christians they will be turned into troubles while they are questioning the Love and meaning of the giver and whether they are sent for good to them or to aggravate their condemnation and the Company of the Giver will advance your estimation of the gift Mean things with the company of our dearest friends are sweeter then abundance in their absence To have money in your purses and goods in your houses and books in your studies and friends in your near and sweet society are all advanced to the higher value when you know that you have also Christ in your hearts and that all these are but the attendants of your Lord and the fruits that drop from the tree of life and the tokens of his Love importing greater things to follow Whereas in the crowd of all those mercies the foul would be uncomfortable or worse if it mist the presence of its dearest friend and in the midst of all would live but as in a wilderness and go seeking after Christ with tears as Mary at his Sepulchre because they had taken away her Lord as she thought and she knew not where they had laid him Joh. 20.13 All mercies would be bitter to us if the presence of Christ do not put into them that special sweetness which is above the estimate of sense 9. This assurance would do much to preserve you from the temptation of sensual delights While you had within you the matter of more excellent contentment and when you find that these inferiour pleasures â—re enemies to those which are your happiâ—ess and life you would not be easily taken with the bait The poorest brutish pleasures â—re made much of by them that never were â—cquainted with any better But after the â—weetness of assurance of the Love of God â—ow little relish is there to be found in the pleasures that are so valued by sensual unbeâ—ievers Let them take them for me saith â—he believing soul may I
plainess to acquaint them with their need of better hopes But some go further and more openly act the part of Satan by reproaching the most faithful servants of the Lord and labouring to bring the people into a conceit that seriousness and carefulness in the matters of God and our salvation are but hypocrisie and unnecessary strictness And in their company and converse they put so much countenance on the ungodly and cast so much secret or open scorn upon those that would live according to the Scriptures as hardeneth multitudes in their impenitency O dreadful reckoning to these unfaithful shepherds when they must answer for the ruine of their miserable flocks how great will their damnation be which must be aggravated by the damnation of so many others When the question is How come so many souls to perish the answer must be Because they â—et light by Christ and Holiness which should have saved them But what made them set light by Christ and Holiness It was their deceitful confidence that they had so much part in Christ and holiness as would suffice to save them though indeed they were unsanctified strangers unto both They were not practically acquainted with thâ—ir necessities But how came they to continue thus ignorant of themselves till it was too late Because they had teachers that kept them strange to the nature of true holiness and did not labour publikely and privately to convince them of their undone condition and to drive them to Christ that by him they might have life Woe to such Teachers that ever they were born that must then be found under the guilt of such perfidiousness cruelty Had they ever felt themselves what is it to be pursued by the Law and conscience and with broken hearts to cast themselves on Christ as their only hope and refuge and what it is to be pardoned and saved by him from the wrath of God and what it is to be sanctified and to be sensible of all his Love they would take another course with sinners and talke of sin and Christ and holiness at other rates and not deceive their people with themselves Direct 1. My first Direction therefore to you is in order to the knowledge of your selves that if it be possible you will live under a faithful soul-searching skilful Pastor and that you will make use of his publike and personal help to bring you and keep you in continual acquaintance with your selves As there is a double use of Physicions one General to teach men the common Principles of Physick and read them Lectures of the nature of diseases and their causes and remedies and the other particular to apply these common precepts to each individual person as they need So is there a double use of ministers of the Gospel One to deliver publikely the common doctrines of Christianity concerning mans sin and misery and the remedy c. and the other to help people in the personal application of all this to themselves And they that take up only with the former deprive themselves of half the benefit of the ministry 1. In publike how skilful and diligent should we be in opening the hearts of sinners to themselves The Pulpit is but our candlestick from which we should diffuse the holy Light into all the Assembly Not speaking the same things of all that are before us as if it were our work only to trouble men or only to comfort them but as the same Light will shew every man the things which he beholdeth in their varieties and differences we see by the same sun a man to be a man and a beast to be a beast and a bird to be a bird so the same word of truth which we deliver must be so discovering and discriminating as to manifest the ungodly to be ungodly and the carnal to be carnal the worldling to be a worldling the hypocrite to be an hypocrite and the enemies of holiness to be as they are and the sincere to be sincere and the renewed soul to be indeed renewed The same light must shew the excellency of sanctification and the filthiness of sin the glory of the Image of Christ and the deformity of that spiritual death which is its privation It must shew the Righteous to be more excellent then his neighbour Prov. 12 26. and help men to discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Mal. 3.18 we must not be like the miserable ungodly preachers that cannot describe the state of grace with clearness and feelingly because they never knew it or that dare not discover the unsanctified lest they detect themselves nor judge them accordidg to their office lest they condemn themselves and that preach to the ungodly as if all were well with them and they dare not awaken the consciences of others lest they should awaken and affright their own and therefore are ready to scorn at all distinguishing preachers and to take the discovery of regeneration to be but the boasting of hypocrisie as if he that would differ from the most or did pretend to the special priviledges of the Saints did but as the Pharise thank God that he is not like other men or say Stand by I am more holy then thou And if these preachers could prove that all men shall be saved that will but say that they are Christians they might then have hope of being saved themselves wiâ—hout that serious piety which they so distaste No wonder therefore iâ— they preach in the language of Corah Numb 1â— 3 Ye take too much upon youâ— seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord But the Lord saith If thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth â—â—t them return unto thee but return not thou unto them Jer. 15.19 If you love not differencing preaching make no difference from the true members of Christ by your hypocrisie or ungodly living be such as they and we shall not difference you from them Read but the first Psalm and the fifteenth Psalm and the third of John and the eighth to the Romans and the first Epistle of John and then tell me whether the Scripture be not a differencing word condemning some and justifying others and shewing the true state of the difference betwixt them What is there no difference between the heirs of Heaven and Hell Or is the difference no more then that one â—â—th the name of a Christian and not the â—her or that one had the hap to be born â—here the Gospel was Received and Chriâ—â—â—â—nity was the Religion of the Countrey 〈◊〉 the other the unhappiness to be born â—here it was not known O no when 〈◊〉 dreadful differencing day is come men â—â—all find that there was another kind of â—â—fference between the way of Life and 〈◊〉 death When many shall say Lord â—â—rd
fruits of sin and of the wrath of God and endless misery How few such true and faithful friends have they and what wonder when it is a carnal inducement that draweth men to follow them It it is their wealth and honour and their power to do men good or hurt in outward things that makes their friends They are attended by these flies and wasps because they carry the honeypot which they love And God saith to his followers Love not the world nor the things that are in the world If any man Love the world the Love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2.15 And it is for Love of worldly things even the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and pride of life c. which are not of the Father but of the world 1 Joh. 2.16 it is for these that great men have their friends and followers for the most part And therefore it is plain that the worst sort of men are ordinarilâ— their friends For those are the worâ—â— men that have not the Love of the Fatheâ— in them but are the friends of the world and therefore the enemies of God Jamâ— 4.4 And the best though fit to be theiâ— truest friends are seldom their followers as knowing that the attractive of thâ— sensual world is a shaddow unfit to deceivâ— those that are acquainted with its vanityâ— and a snare unfit to take those that havâ— observed how Satan laies and baits the trapâ— and how they have sped that have been taken in it A despised Christ that hath the words of eternal life is much more followed by men that have the heavenly relish Such gracious souls whose appetites are not corrupted by the creature and their sicknesses have more mind to flock after a spiritual and powerful messenger of Christ that talkes to them of his Kingdom and the Righteousness thereof which they first seek then to gape after the preferment and vain glory of prosperity Christ that despised the offer of all the Kingdoms and Glory of the world Mat 4.8 9. doth teach his followers to despise them Seeing then the ordinary attendants of 〈◊〉 prosperous are the worst of men that 〈◊〉 themselves and are purveying for the â—â—sh what wonder if they be flatterers â—hat have neither skill nor will to speak â—â—at unpleasing language of reproof that â—â—ould make the prosperous know themselves Oh how seldom or never do they hear â—hat the poor can hear from every mouth â—f a man of low degree be wicked or offend its enemy dare tell him of it and his friend dare tell him of it and his angry neighbour â— companion will be sure to tell him of it and they dare tell him frequently till he amend and tell him plainly and set it home But if great ones be as bad and â—â—ed more help as having more temptation yet alas they may sin and sin again and perish for any body that will deal faithfully with their souls except some faithful Minister of Christ whose plainess is taken but for a thing of course And usually even Ministers themselves are some of them so unfaithful and some so fearful and some so prudently cautelous that such persons have no such help from them to know themselves as the poorer sort of people have If we deal freely with them and set it home it will be well taken if it offend yet offence may easily be born as bringing no ill consequents to our Ministery but if we deal so with the great oneâ— of the world what outcries would it raise and by what names should we and ouâ— preaching be called If it were not for feaâ— lest some malicious hearers would misunderstand me and misapply my words aâ— spoken of those that we are bound to honour and as tending to diminish the reputation of any of our superiors which 〈◊〉 detest I should have shewed you all this in Scripture instances When Haman could not bear the omission one mans obeysance what wonder if such cannot bear to be spoken to as indeed they are Not only an Ahab hateth one faithful plain Michaiah because he prophesieth not good of him but evil 1 King 22.8 but Asa that destroyed Idolatry can imprison the Prophet that reproveth him for his sin 2 Chron. 16.10 I will not tell you of the words that were spoken to Amos by the Priest of Bethel Amos 7.10 11 12 13. or to the Prophet 2 Chron. 25.15 16. lest malice mis-interpret and mis-report me For it is none of my intent to fix on any particular persons but to tell you in general the lamentable disadvantage that the great and prosperous have as to the knowledge of themselves how little plain dealing they have and how hardly most of them can bear it though yet I doubt not but it is born and loved by those that have true grace and that if David sin he can endure to hear from Nathan Thou art the man and this shall befall thee and an Eli can bear the prophesie of Samuel and say It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 2.27 3.17 18. and an Hezekiah can say Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken 2 King 20.19 and Josiah can bear the threatnings of Huldah 2 Chron. 34. 2 King 22. And it is a double honour in persons that have so great temptations to love the plain discoveries of their sin But a Joash will slay even Zechariah the son of Jehoiadah that set him up and a Herod that hath so much religion as to fear John as knowing that he was a just man and an holy and to observe or save him and when he heard him to do many things and hear him gladly had yet so much love to his fleshly lust and so little power to resist a flatterer as that he could sell both the head of John and his own soul for so pittiful a price as this Mar. 6.20 25 27 28. So true is that of Christ himself Joh. 3.20 21. For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved or discovered But he that doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God And indeed there is none that more opposeth Micaiah then Zedekiah as being concerned for the honour of his flattering prophesie to bring plain dealing into disgrace It is he that smiteth him and saith which way went the spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee 1 King 22.24 As Plutarch compareth the flaterer to a painter that having made a picture of Cocks which was very bad he bid his boyes be sure to keep the living Cocks out of sight lest their appearance should shew the faultiness of his picture so saith Plutarch doth the flatterer do what he can to keep away plain-dealing faithful friends lest his fraud and falshood should be detected by them But saith Solomon Prov. 28.23 He that rebuketh a man afterward
Gods wrath for ever than to find at present that you have offended him Sirs the question is whether you are under the condemnation of the law or not Whether you are regenerate and justified or yet in your sin If you are Justified far be it from me to perswade you to think that you are under condemnation I leave that to Satan and the malicious world who are the condemners of those that Christ doth Justifie But if you are unregenerate and unjustified what will you do at death and judgement Can you stand before God or be saved upon any other terms You cannot if God be to be believed you cannot and if you know the Scriptures you know you cannot And if you cannot be saved in an unrenewed unjustified state is it not needful that you know it Will you cry for help before you find your selves in danger or strive to get out of sin and misery before you believe that you are in it If you think that you have no other sin than the pardoned infirmities of the Godly you will â—ever so value Jesus Christ and pray and â—â—rive for such grace as is necessary to them â—â—at have the unpardoned reigning sins of â—â—e ungodly If it be necessary that you 〈◊〉 saved it is necessary that you value and â—â—ek salvation and if so it is necessary â—â—at you know your need of it and what â—ou must be and do if you will obtain it 〈◊〉 is a childish or brutish thing below a man of reason to stick at a little present trouble when Death cannot otherwise be prevented If you can prove that ever any was converted and saved by any other way then by coming to the knowledge of their sin and misery then you have some excuse for your presumption But if Scripture tell us of no other way yea that there is no other way and you know of none that ever was saved by any other I think it is time to fall to work and search and try your Hearts and lives and not to stop at a straw when you are running for your lives and when damnation is as it were at your backs You should rather think with your selves If we can so hardly bear the forethoughts of Hell how shall we be able everlastingly to bear the torments And consider that Christ hath made the discovery of your sin and misery to be now comparatively an easie burden in that he hath made them pardonable and curable If you had not had a Saviour to fly to but must have looked on your misery as a remediless case it had then been terrible indeed and it had been no great mistake to have thought it the best way to take a little ease at present rather then to disquiet your selves in vain But through the great mercy of God this is not your case you need not despair of pardon and salvation if you will but hear while it is called Today The taske that you are called to is not to torment your selves as the damned do with the thought of unpardonable sin and of a misery that hath no help or hope but it is only to find out your disease and come and open it to the Physicion and submit to his advice and use his means and he will freely and infallibly work the cure It is but to find out the folly that you have been guilty of and the danger that you have brought your selves into and come to Christ and with hearty sorrow and resolution to give up your selves unto his grace to cast away your iniquities and enter into his safe and comfortable service And will you lie in Hell and say We are suffering here that we might escape the trouble of foreseeing our danger of it or of endeavouring in time to have prevented it We dyed for fear of knowing that we were sick We suffered our house â—o burn to ashes for fear of knowing that it was on fire O Sirs be warned in time and own not and practice not such â—egregious folly in a business of everlasting consequence Believe it if you sin you must know that you have sinned and if you are in the power of Satan it cannot long be hid Did you but know the difference between discovering it now while there is hope and hereafter when there is none I should have no need to perswade you to be presently willing to know the truth whatever it should cost you Hind 3. ANother great impediment of the Knowlege of ourselves is that self love so blindeth men that they can see no great evil in themselves or any thing that is their own It makes them believe that all things are as they would have them be Yea and better than they would have them For he that would not indeed be Holy is willing by himself and others to be thought so Did not the lamentable experience of all the world confirm it it were incredible that self-love could so exceedingly blind men If Charity think no evil of another and we are very hardly brought to believe any great harm by those we love much more will self-love cause men to see no evil by themselves which possibly they can shut their eyes against it being more radicated and powerful than the love of others No arguments so cogent no light so clear no oratory so perswading as can make a self-lover think himself as bad as indeed he is till God by grace or terror shall convince him When you are preaching the most searching sermons to convince him self-love confuteth or misapplyeth them When the markes of tryal are most plainly opened and most closely urged self-love doth frustrate the preachers greatest skill and diligence When nothing of sense can be said to prove the piety of the impious and the sincerity of the formal hypocrite yet self love is that wonderful Alchymist that can make gold not only of the basest mettal but of dross and dirt Let the most undenyable witness be brought to detect the fraud and misery of an unrenewed soul self-self-love is his most powerful defender No cause so bad which it cannot justifie and no person so miserable but it will pronounce him happy till God by Grace or wrath confute it self-Self-love is the grand Deceiver of the world Dir. 3. SVbdue this inordinate self-love and bring yoar minds to a just impartiality in judging Remember that self-love is only powerful at your private bar and it is not there that your cause must be finally decided It can do nothing at the bar of God It cannot there justifie where it is condemned it self God will not so much as hear it though you will hear none that speak against it self-love is but the vicegerent of the grand Usurper that shall be deposed and have no shew of power at Christs appearing when he will judge his enemies And here it will be a helpful course to see your own sin and misery in others and put the case as if it were theirs and then see how you can
doth shake so moveable and weak a thing and muddy and trouble a mind so easily disturbed and how hard it is again to quiet and compose a mind so troubled and bring a grieved soul to reason and make passion understand the truth and to cause a weake afflicted soul to judge clean contrary to what they feel all this considered no wonder if the peace and comfort of many Christians be yet but little and interrupted and uneven and if there be much crying in a family that hath so many little ones and much complaining where there are so many weak and poor and many a groane where there is so much pain To shew us the Sun at midnight and convince us of Love while we feel the rod and to give us the comfortable sense of grace while we have the uncomfortable sense of the greatness of our sin to give us the joyful hopes of glory in a troubled melancholy dejected State all this is a work that requireth the special helpe of the Almighty and exceeds the strength of feeble worms Let God give us never so full discoveries of his tenderest Love and our own sincerity as if a voice from Heaven had witnessed it unto us we are questioning all if once we seem to feel the contrary and are perplexed in the tumult of our thougths and passions and bewildred and lost in the errors of our own disturbed minds Though we have walkt with God we are questioning whether indeed we ever knew him as soon as he seemeth to hide his face Though we have felt another life and spirit possess and actuate us than heretofore and found that we love the things and persons which once we loved not and that we were quite falln out with that which was our former pleasure and that our souls broke off from their old delights and hopes and ways and resolvedly did engage themselves to God and unfeignedly delivered up themselves unto him yet all is forgotten or the convincing evidence of all forgotten if the lively influences of heaven be but once so far withdrawn as that our present state is clouded and afflicted and our former vigour and assurance is abated And thus unthankfully we deny God the praise and acknowledgement of his mercies longer than we are tasting them or they are still before us All that he hath done for us is as nothing and all the Love which he hath manifested to us is called hatred and all the witnesses that have put their hands to his Acts of Grace are questioned and his very seals denyed and his earnest misinterpreted as long as our darkened distempered souls are in a condition unfit for the apprehension of Mercy and usually when a diseased or afflicted body doth draw the mind into too great a participation of the affliction And thus as we are disposed our selves so we judge of our selves and of all our receivings and al Gods dealings with us A soul in a cheerful lively frame thinks well of all that God doth to him and hath thoughts of Hope and Peace and Joy as Health disposeth the body to alacrity and can make a man merry that hath little else Whereas a soul overwhelmed with cares and fears and griefs and muddyed with sinfull excessive thoughtfulness and habituated in a diseased sickly frame is afraid of every thing and turneth matter of comfort into sorrow and is in daily pain by its own imaginations like a man that hath a sore and is hurt with the thought that some body toucht it When we feel our selves well all goes well with us and we put a good interpretation upon all things And when we are out of order we complain of every thing and take pleasure in nothing and no one can content us and all is taken in the worser part As the Poet said Laeta fere laetus cecini cano tristia tristis You shall have a merry song from a merry heart and a sad ditty from a troubled grieved mind And thus while the discoveries both of sin and grace are at present overlookt or afterwards forgotten and almost all men judge of themselves by present feeling no wonder if few are well acquainted with themselves But as the Word and the works of God must be taken together if they be understood and not a sentence part or parcel taken separated from the rest which must make up the sense so also the workings of God upon your souls must be taken altogether and you must read them over from the first till now and set all together and not forget the letters the part that went before or else you will make no sense of that which followeth And I beseech all weak and troubled Christians to remember also that they are but children and Schollars in the school of Christ and therefore when they cannot set the several parts together let them not overvalue their unexperienced understandings but by the help of their skilful faithful Teachers do that which of themselves they cannot do Enquire what your former mercies signifie Open them to your guides and tell them how God hath dealt with you from the beginning and tell them how it is with you now and desire them to help you to perceive how one conduceth to the right understanding of the other And be not of froward but of tractable submissive minds and thus your self-acquaintance may be maintained at least to safety and to some degree of peace if not to the Joys which you desire which God reserveth for their proper season I Should have added more on this necessary subject but that I have said so much of it in other writings especially in the Saints Rest Part. 3. chap. 7. and in my Treatise of Self-denial and in the Right Method for Peace of Conscience I must confess I have written on thiâ— subject as I did of Self-denyal viz with expectation that all men shoulâ— confess the truth of what I say and yet so few be cured by it of theiâ— Self-ignorance as that still we must stand by and see the world distracted by it the Church divided the Love of Breâ—thren interrupted and the work of Saâ—tan carryed on by error violence and pride and the hearts of men so strangely stupified as to go on incorâ—rigibly in all this mischief while thâ— cause and cure are opened before them and all in vain while they confess the truth so that they wilâ— leave us nothing to do but exercise our compassion by lamenting the deliration of phrenetick men while we are unable to save the Church their brethren or their own souls from the dilaceratious and calamitous effects of their furious self-ignorance But Christ that hath sent us with the light which may be resisted and abused and in part blown out will speedily come with Light unresistible and will teach the proud the scornful the unmerciful the self-conceited the malicious and the violent so effectually to know themselves as that no more exhortations shall be necessary for the reception of his convictions nor will he or his servants any more beseech men to consider and know their sin and misery nor be beholden to them to believe and confess it See Jude v. 14.15 And is there no Remedy for a stupified inconsiderate soul Is there no prevention of so terrible a self-knowledge as the Light of Judgement and the fire of Hell will else procure Yes the remedy is certain easie and at hand even to know themselves till they are driven to study and seek and know the Father and his Son Jesus Christ Joh. 17.3 And yet is the Salvation of most as hopeless almost as if there were no remedie because no perswasion can prevail with them to use it Lord what hath thus lockt up the minds and hearts of sinners against thy truth and thee what hath made Reasonable man so unreasonable and a self-loving nature so mortally to hate it self O thou that openest and no man shutteth use the Key that openeth Hearts Come 〈◊〉 with thy Wisdome and thy Love anâ— all this blindness and obstinacy will be gone At least commit not the safety of thy flock to such as will not Know themselves But gather thy remnant and bring them to their folds and let them be fruitful and increase and set up shepheards over them which shall feed them and let them fear no more nor be dismayed nor be lacking Jer. 23.3 4. Ordain a place for them plant them and and let them dwell therein unmoved and let not the children of wickedness waste them any more 1 Chron. 17.9 As a shepheard seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among 〈◊〉 sheep that are scattered so seek out thy sheep and deliver them 〈◊〉 of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day Ezek. â—4 12 Save thy people and bless thine inheritance feed them also and lift them up for ever Psal 28.9 FINIS